BREAKING: Polio Case Reported In New York

For the first time in over a decade, a United States citizen has been diagnosed with polio

Polio a disease that the U.S. claimed was eradicated back in 1979 has made its way back into the United States after a man in New York was diagnosed with the deadly disease.

The young man who was diagnosed with Polio was hospitalized in Rockland Couty, New York.

According to doctors, the young man is no longer able to spread the poliovirus but now they are looking into where he caught the contagious disease.

New York health officials on Thursday reported a polio case, the first in the U.S. in nearly a decade.

Polio was once one of the nation's most feared diseases until it was eradicated by vaccines. It was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 1979. https://t.co/0sYyNTEyx4

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 21, 2022

USA Today had more on the story:

A case of polio has been reported in New York, Rockland County officials said Thursday. The viral disease, which can cause neurological symptoms, paralysis or death, was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 1979.

Although routine spread has been halted for decades, occasionally travelers with polio have brought infections into the U.S. In 2013, a case occurred in a 7-month-old who had recently moved to the U.S. from India.

The patient in the new case, a young adult who did not recently travel outside the country, was hospitalized but is no longer, officials confirmed. Officials said the person had presented with paralysis but wouldn’t say if the patient was still dealing with that side effect.

The person is no longer able to transmit the virus, officials said. But investigators are looking into how the infection occurred and whether other people may have been exposed to the virus.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York health officials report polio case, the first one in U.S. in nearly a decade.

— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) July 21, 2022

CNN shared these details:

A person from Rockland County, New York, has been diagnosed with polio, the first case identified in the United States in nearly a decade.

The unvaccinated young adult began experiencing weakness and paralysis about a month ago, county Health Commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert said Thursday.

The case comes nearly a month after the UK Health Security Agency warned that it had detected poliovirus in its surveillance of London sewage samples, indicating that there had been some spread between closely linked individuals in North and East London, although no cases had been identified there.

Polio is an infection caused by the poliovirus. About 1 in 4 infected people have flu-like symptoms including sore throat, fever, tiredness, nausea, headache and stomach pain.

As many as 1 in 200 will develop more serious symptoms that include tingling and numbness in the legs, an infection of the brain or spinal cord, and paralysis, according to the US Centers for the Disease control and Prevention.