- Polio is considered one of the most infectious diseases in the world and mainly affects children under five years of age.
- This year saw the first case of polio in the United States since 2013.
- Declaring a polio emergency seeks to increase the doses of the vaccine available in New York for immediate application.
The panorama around the world looks complicated by the emergence of new diseases but also by the reappearance of others that were believed eradicated. In that sense, the The return of polio to the United States remains a concern and has even caused New York to declare a state of emergency.
Story of what happened
The problem began on July 21 when the New York Department of Health identified a case. It all happened in Rockland County and the affected person was an unvaccinated adult who had not traveled abroad.
Since then, a strong concern was generated and shortly after the virus that causes this disease in the entity’s wastewater. With this, an atmosphere of tension was generated because it could be an indication that there are actually more cases.
For its part, the The last time a polio infection was reported in the United States was in 2013. Since then the nation had remained safe and was even thought to have eradicated the disease.
Polio is already an emergency in New York
Against this background, today the governor of New York, Kathy Hochuldeclared a state of emergency. Plus it’s accompanied by an executive order that will remain in force until next October 9. The goal is to “implement a Comprehensive Emergency Management State Plan and authorize all necessary state agencies to take appropriate action to help local governments and people contain, prepare for, respond to, and recover from this emergency.”
BREAKING: Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) issued an executive order declaring a State Disaster Emergency over polio in New York state, per @HealthNYGov statement.
— Madison Muller (@g0ingmad) September 9, 2022
At the same time, By issuing this emergency, the entity will now be able to access a greater number of vaccines to apply immediately to its inhabitants. All of this is relevant because currently only 86.2% of children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years in New York have received three doses of the vaccine.
However, if only Rockland County is analyzed, the situation is more worrying. Current statistics show that only 60.34% of children are immunized against this disease.
Why is polio so dangerous?
Is about a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under the age of five. The virus spreads from person to person, mainly by the fecal-oral route or, less commonly, by common means (for example, contaminated water or food). It multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.
In 1988, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution for the global eradication of polio. Wild poliovirus cases have decreased by more than 99% since 1988. They have gone from 350,000 cases in more than 125 endemic countries back then to 175 reported cases in 2019.
Of the three strains of wild poliovirus (type 1, type 2 and type 3), type 2 was eradicated in 1999 and no case of type 3 has been detected since the last one was reported in Nigeria in November 2012. officially certified the global eradication of both strains. In 2020, type 1 affects two countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Also read:
Polio reappears in the US: First case detected in almost a decade
WHO declares new polio outbreak; It is the second in this 2022
Why is October 24 commemorated as World Polio Day?