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posted by janrinok on Tuesday July 26 2022, @08:12AM   Printer-friendly

1st Polio Case Reported in US in Nearly a Decade Detected in New York State

1st polio case reported in US in nearly a decade detected in New York state:

The first case of polio reported in the U.S. in nearly a decade was detected in New York state, health officials said Thursday.

The case is in a resident of Rockland County, the state health department said.

State health officials said sequencing determined that the newly detected case is an instance of vaccine-derived polio. The oral polio vaccine contains a weakened version of the polio virus that can be excreted in stool and transmitted.

That vaccine has not been administered in the U.S. since 2000, suggesting that the virus may have originated somewhere outside the U.S., health officials said.

The Rockland County polio patient is a young adult whose symptoms began a month ago, according to public health officials in Rockland County. The person is no longer contagious but has suffered some paralysis. It is unknown whether that will be permanent.

The infected person contracted polio through exposure to someone who was inoculated with the oral vaccine. The patient did not travel outside of the country, so the exposure was here,

Rare Case of Polio Prompts Alarm and an Urgent Investigation in New York

Rare Case of Polio Prompts Alarm and an Urgent Investigation in New York:

The sudden interest in such inoculations came a day after the county authorities announced that a local adult, unvaccinated, had tested positive for the disease. The case prompted alarm from local officials and residents, some of whom couldn't remember whether or not they had received the vaccine, which has been widely available since the 1950s.

[...] "The last real polio case I saw in a person is probably pictures of F.D.R.," he said, referring to the Depression-era President Franklin D. Roosevelt. "I think for a lot of people, they don't necessarily understand the gravity of what polio actually is."

It was still not clear exactly when or where the patient had contracted the disease, though health officials believe the person was infected by someone who had received the oral polio vaccine, which contains weakened live virus.

Previously: Poliovirus May be Spreading in London; Virus Detected in Sewage for Months

Journal Reference:
Jane R. Zucker, Jennifer B. Rosen, Martha Iwamoto, et al. Consequences of Undervaccination [open], New England Journal of Medicine (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1912514)


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

Related Stories

Poliovirus May be Spreading in London; Virus Detected in Sewage for Months 95 comments

Poliovirus may be spreading in London; virus detected in sewage for months:

A vaccine-derived version of poliovirus has repeatedly surfaced in London sewage over the past several months, suggesting there may be a cryptic or hidden spread among some unvaccinated people, UK health officials announced Wednesday. No polio cases have been reported so far, nor any identified cases of paralysis. But sewage sampling in one London treatment plant has repeatedly detected closely related vaccine-derived polioviruses between February and May. This suggests "it is likely there has been some spread between closely-linked individuals in North and East London and that they are now shedding the type 2 poliovirus strain in their feces," the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.

Though the current situation raises alarm, the agency notes that it's otherwise common to see a small number of vaccine-like polioviruses pop up in sewage from time to time, usually from people who have recently been vaccinated out of the country. This is because many countries use oral polio vaccines that include weakened (attenuated) polioviruses, which can still replicate in the intestines and thus be present in stool. They can also spread to others via poor hygiene and sanitation (i.e., unwashed hands and food or water contaminated by sewage), which can become concerning amid poor vaccination rates.

US Officially Added to WHO's List of Poliovirus Outbreak Countries 22 comments

US officially added to WHO's list of poliovirus outbreak countries:

The United States, one of the world's richest and most developed countries, has met the World Health Organization's criteria to be listed as a country with circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday.

The US now joins the ranks of around 30 other polio outbreak countries, largely low- and middle-income, including Ethiopia, Mozambique, Somalia, and Yemen. Notably, the list includes just two other high-income countries—the United Kingdom and Israel—which have detected the circulation of a poliovirus strain genetically linked to the one spreading in the US.

[...] Inclusion on the WHO's polio outbreak list is a new low point for the US. On the one hand, it reinforces a key global public health message in the campaign to fully eradicate that virus, which is that "any form of poliovirus anywhere is a threat to children everywhere." But it mainly spotlights the dangerous foothold that anti-vaccine sentiments have gained in the country over the past several decades.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by drussell on Tuesday July 26 2022, @08:35AM (17 children)

    by drussell (2678) on Tuesday July 26 2022, @08:35AM (#1262954) Journal

    No mention of whether his parents admit they're idiots for not having vaccinated their child...

    ...yet plenty of fluff trying to make it sound to some like it's the fault of the entire concept of vaccination that made him sick.

    Oy vey!

    • (Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday July 26 2022, @08:52AM (4 children)

      by Opportunist (5545) on Tuesday July 26 2022, @08:52AM (#1262955)

      It's vaccinations, and of course foreigners since it must have come from abroad.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Tuesday July 26 2022, @09:08AM (3 children)

        It's vaccinations, and of course foreigners since it must have come from abroad.

        Sadly, no.

        Rockland County, NY has had several outbreaks of preventable disease (Here's one from 2018 [cnn.com]) because some folks there haven't been vaccinating their kids.

        It's sad, but not surprising.

        --
        No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
        • (Score: 4, Funny) by Opportunist on Tuesday July 26 2022, @11:27AM (2 children)

          by Opportunist (5545) on Tuesday July 26 2022, @11:27AM (#1262964)

          Sir, this is hyperbole, facts and the checking thereof is not allowed here.

          • (Score: 4, Funny) by NotSanguine on Tuesday July 26 2022, @12:42PM (1 child)

            Sir, this is hyperbole, facts and the checking thereof is not allowed here.

            You are, of course, quite correct.

            My apologies for injecting facts into the discussion and will be severely punished for my bad behavior.

            --
            No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
            • (Score: 3, Funny) by Freeman on Tuesday July 26 2022, @02:34PM

              by Freeman (732) on Tuesday July 26 2022, @02:34PM (#1262997) Journal

              Beware, for next is the "Comfy Chair!"

              --
              Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday July 26 2022, @10:35AM (9 children)

      by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday July 26 2022, @10:35AM (#1262962)

      From TFS:

      The sudden interest in such inoculations came a day after the county authorities announced that a local adult, unvaccinated, had tested positive for the disease.

      So what this confirms is that what really motivates antivaxxers isn't any of the stuff about conspiracy theories or big pharma or microchips, but that they don't believe the disease in question is actually a threat and they don't like getting shots. As soon as they realize the disease is in fact a threat to themselves, suddenly their alleged concerns about a super-well-tested vaccine like DPT don't matter anymore. I heard about this phenomenon regarding a bunch of anti-Covid-vaxxers too: One guy I knew and his wife (largely forced to by her job) were the only one in their family to get vaccinated and were getting a lot of ridicule about it, but everyone changed their mind when a few people got Covid at Christmas dinner.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @11:28AM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @11:28AM (#1262965)

        ...but that they don't believe the disease in question is actually a threat...

        It wouldn't be, except for this:

        That vaccine has not been administered in the U.S. since 2000, suggesting that the virus may have originated somewhere outside the U.S., health officials said.

        This is just the inevitable cost of the Dems "open borders" policy.

        • (Score: 3, Touché) by khallow on Tuesday July 26 2022, @12:30PM (3 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 26 2022, @12:30PM (#1262978) Journal

          This is just the inevitable cost of the Dems "open borders" policy.

          Sounds like the anti-vaxxers should have taken that cost into account then. You don't get to be stupid just because somewhere in your society there is a cost.

          • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @02:15PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @02:15PM (#1262992)

            Sounds like the anti-vaxxers should have taken that cost into account then

            No, sounds like the U.S. should stop letting disease-ridden foreigners freely enter the country.

            • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @02:24PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @02:24PM (#1262996)

              Sounds like the anti-vaxxers should have taken that cost into account then

              No, sounds like the U.S. should stop letting disease-ridden foreigners freely enter the country.

              Yeah! That's taking opportunities away from disease-ridden Americans! USA! USA! USA!

            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 27 2022, @02:38AM

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 27 2022, @02:38AM (#1263124) Journal

              No, sounds like the U.S. should stop letting disease-ridden foreigners freely enter the country.

              Or a disease-ridden local freely visiting some other country - you know, outside the US?

      • (Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday July 26 2022, @12:23PM (1 child)

        by Opportunist (5545) on Tuesday July 26 2022, @12:23PM (#1262977)

        It's the gift that keeps on giving.

        It's also a reminder why the word "Gift" in German means poison.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Mykl on Tuesday July 26 2022, @10:19PM (1 child)

        by Mykl (1112) on Tuesday July 26 2022, @10:19PM (#1263094)

        I do wonder about this. Part of me thinks that a Polio outbreak could no longer be contained in many Western countries today due to the critical mass of anti-vaxxers we now have (egged on by certain media outlets who spout disinformation in order to generate eyeballs and revenue).

        The other part of me wonders whether seeing a friend or relative contract Polio might shock some of the anti-vax crowd enough to re-evaluate their priorities. The challenge for vaccines today is their past success - we no longer live with smallpox or polio, and COVID (despite killing many) just does not rank nearly as high on the scare-o-meter.

        • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday July 27 2022, @10:37AM

          by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday July 27 2022, @10:37AM (#1263184)

          COVID (despite killing many) just does not rank nearly as high on the scare-o-meter.

          So my experience, at least, is that antivaxxers saw Covid as a complete hoax ... until it moved from the realm of TV talk to real life people they knew getting seriously sick. Then all of a sudden there was a move for a lot of them to quietly get vaccinated, while publicly still proclaiming they weren't going to.

          Of course, a different explanation needs to be used for the people who in many cases were vaccinated themselves but used Covid to hawk all sorts of quack remedies that didn't work.

          --
          The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 3, Touché) by stormreaver on Tuesday July 26 2022, @11:59AM (1 child)

      by stormreaver (5101) on Tuesday July 26 2022, @11:59AM (#1262976)

      If you inject a live virus into a body, it's predictable that the same virus will spread to other people. Perhaps we shouldn't allow people into the country who have a known paralytic toxin flowing through their blood. We should require proof of non-vaccination at the border before we let people in.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 27 2022, @02:43AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 27 2022, @02:43AM (#1263128) Journal

        We should require proof of non-vaccination at the border before we let people in.

        One obvious proof would be carrying natural polio. Not only are they showing that they're getting better immunity the right way, they can spread that immunity to others too! Clearly the kind of person we want in the US!

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Nofsck Ingcloo on Tuesday July 26 2022, @11:32AM (2 children)

    by Nofsck Ingcloo (5242) on Tuesday July 26 2022, @11:32AM (#1262967)

    1st Polio Case Reported in US in Nearly a Decade Detected in New York State

    upstart [soylentnews.org] writes:

    1st polio case reported in US in nearly a decade detected in New York state [go.com]:

            The first case of polio reported in the U.S. in nearly a decade was detected in New York state, health officials said Thursday.

    The first three sentences in TFS are nearly identical. This seems to be an increasingly widespread style on web sites. I find it annoying. It takes up page space and bandwidth. Why the hell is this done?

    --
    1984 was not written as an instruction manual.
    • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday July 26 2022, @11:55AM (1 child)

      by looorg (578) on Tuesday July 26 2022, @11:55AM (#1262973)

      Perhaps they get paid by the word? More words, more $. Or their readers are kind of dim and they need to break it down to the level of a toddler and repeat it often so the news sinks in.

      • (Score: 2) by gnuman on Tuesday July 26 2022, @09:48PM

        by gnuman (5013) on Tuesday July 26 2022, @09:48PM (#1263086)

        Also here? We have 4 sentences like that. One after another after another After Another.

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