Health Officials Concerned About Polio Vaccination Rates In The HV

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Polio vaccination rates vary widely among counties in the Hudson Valley, a concern given the polio virus found circulating around Orange and Rockland counties after a young adult in Rockland with the first case in the United States in a decade became paralyzed.

SEE: 'Tip Of The Iceberg': More Polio Virus Detected In The Hudson Valley

"It is disheartening to see a resurgence of polio, a disease that was largely eradicated long ago," Dr. Irina Gelman, Orange County's health commissioner, said in a statement. "It is concerning that polio is circulating in our community, given the low rates of vaccination for this debilitating disease in certain areas of our county."

Orange County has the lowest polio immunization rate in the Hudson Valley among 2-year-olds, according to Aug. 1 data from the New York Department of Health. Here's how the region's counties stack up:

• Dutchess: 76.43 percent
• Orange: 58.68
• Putnam: 78.00
• Rockland: 60.34
• Sullivan: 62.33
• Ulster: 73.70
• Westchester: 76.13

The statewide polio vaccination rate among 2-year-olds is 78.96 percent. The county with the highest rate is Warren County, at 91.10 percent. The county with the lowest is Yates, at 53.77 percent.

The New York State Immunization Information System includes polio vaccination rates for all New York counties except New York City.

State health officials created a new page dedicated to polio information on the health department's website after their July 21 announcement about the case of polio in Rockland County. Thursday, they added the tab showing polio vaccination rates per county.

They said Thursday that three positive samples from Rockland and four from Orange are genetically linked to the individual case of paralytic polio previously identified in a Rockland County resident.

"Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected," State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said.

Also called infantile paralysis, the virus spreads mostly from person to person or through contaminated water. There is no cure.

Symptoms of polio, which can be mild and flu-like, can take up to 30 days to appear, during which time an infected individual can be shedding virus to others. It can infect a person's spinal cord, causing paralysis and possibly permanent disability. According to the World Health Organization, of those paralyzed, 5-10 percent die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.

Polio was once one of the nation's most feared diseases, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis.

Vaccines became available starting in 1955, and a national vaccination campaign cut the annual number of U.S. cases to less than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s.

In 1979, polio was declared eliminated in the U.S., meaning there was no longer routine spread.

A multi-year global health campaign, assisted by volunteers and funding from Rotary International, has since ended routine spread almost everywhere, though polio is still endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, numerous countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have also reported cases in recent years.

Rarely, travelers have brought polio infections into the U.S. The last such case was in 2013, when a 7-month-old who had recently moved to the U.S. from India was diagnosed in San Antonio, Texas, according to federal health officials. That child had the type of polio found in the live form of vaccine used in other countries.

The Rockland County case and the wastewater samples in Orange and Rockland counties were linked genetically to a strain of the live-virus vaccine and to wastewater samples in London and Jerusalem.

Rockland has been a center of vaccine resistance in recent years. A 2018-19 measles outbreak there infected 312 people. In July, anti-vaxxers commenting on the county's social media pages derided officials' efforts to encourage polio vaccination.

This case should serve as a wake-up call to the unvaccinated, Jennifer Nuzzo, a Brown University pandemic researcher, told the Associated Press.

"This isn't normal. We don't want to see this," Nuzzo said.

Between 2012 and 2021, the nationwide polio vaccination rate for kindergartners slipped from 95.3 percent to 93.9 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

August is National Immunization Awareness Month.