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New York County officials, who confirmed the first case of polio in almost a decade, are urging residents to ensure that their vaccinations are up-to-date.
Officials who are residents of Rockland County are unvaccinated adults, but they did not elaborate on their condition.
At a news conference, Rockland County executive Ed Day said individuals who tested positive for polio are no longer contagious. He said authorities are currently focusing on vaccination and knowing if anyone else is affected.
Vaccines have been available since 1955, and national vaccination campaigns have reduced the annual number of cases in the United States to less than 100 in the 1960s and less than 10 in the 1970s, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
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In 1979, the United States declared the eradication of polio. This means that the daily spread is gone. On rare occasions, polio travelers have caused infections in the United States, the last such case being in 2013.
According to Dey, the reason polio hasn’t been seen for many years is that “safe and effective vaccines” are widely available, reducing polio from nearly 400,000 in the 1980s to 42 worldwide in 2016. Because I did.
Most people infected with polio, including those infected with polio in Rockland County, are symptomatic. However, in severe cases, it can cause severe paralysis, Day said.
“The pandemic is settling down, but the impact is still felt,” said Day, citing UNICEF’s report on the dramatic reduction in childhood immunization worldwide.
“Many of you may be too young to remember polio, but when I was growing up, the illness caused fear for my family, including myself,” Day said. “My dad was a WWII combat veteran. Just mentioning polio everywhere in the house makes him look pure white. It’s been decades since the vaccine was created. The fact shows that the disease can continue mercilessly โ but again, how effective is vaccination? ”
Day urged schools to become more active to ensure that students were vaccinated to prevent the spread of other illnesses.
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“Do the right thing for the greater benefit of your child and your community, and get your child vaccinated now,” Day said.
Julia Musto of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.