The first U.S. case of polio in nearly a decade has been confirmed in a young unvaccinated adult in Rockland County, U.S. state of New York.
The New York Health Department confirmed the disease in a person living in Rockland County, 48 kilometers north of Manhattan.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the last case of polio in the United States was in 2013.
Officials said that the latest infection was found in a person who received the oral polio vaccine (OPV). However, the oral polio vaccine was discontinued in the United States in 2000.
The New York Department of Health said, ‘This indicates that the virus may have originated in a location outside the US where OPV is administered because the inactivated vaccine cannot produce a reverse strain.’
Officials warned health workers to watch for more cases and urged people in unvaccinated areas to get a dose of the polio vaccine.
Polio has been eradicated through a massive global effort in recent decades. It is a fatal viral disease that mainly affects children under the age of five.
Since 1988, the number of polio cases in the United States has decreased by 99 percent. In 1988, polio was endemic in 125 countries and 350,000 cases were recorded worldwide.
Polio declined dramatically in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s after vaccine development.
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