New York health officials recorded today, Thursday, a case of polio, the first in the United States in nearly a decade.
Officials did not immediately provide further details about the identity of the patient from Rockland County, whether or not he received the polio vaccine and what his condition is now.
Vaccines from outside America
State officials said the person appeared to have a virus strain derived from the vaccine, possibly from someone who received the live vaccine — available in several other countries, not including the United States.
Polio was once one of the most feared diseases in the United States, and its annual outbreaks caused thousands of cases of paralysis, mostly among children.
disease resistance
But vaccines became available in 1955, and a nationwide vaccination campaign reduced the annual number of infections to less than 100 in the 1960s and less than 10 in the 1970s, according to the American Health Centers.
In 1979, polio was declared eradicated in the United States, which means that it is no longer routinely circulating in the country.
Travelers rarely brought polio to the United States, and the last such case was in 2013.