Polio: New York reports first US case in nearly a decade

A young adult in New York has reportedly contracted polio for the first time in almost ten years, according to state health officials.

The sickness has paralysed an unidentified patient in Rockland County, despite the fact that they are allegedly no longer contagious.

The unvaccinated person was likely exposed to someone who had received a vaccination that contained a live virus that had been weakened, according to the authorities.

The last documented incidence of the highly contagious virus in the US was reported in 2013.

The disease, which was formerly widely feared across the nation, was nearly eradicated thanks to a widespread immunisation effort that began in 1955.

Annual cases sharply dropped, dropping from more than 100 in the 1960s to less than 10 in the 1970s, and by 1979, the US was declared polio-free.

Since then, people from abroad have occasionally brought polio into the country.

The virus, which primarily affects children, can cause chronic paralysis and muscle weakness as well as death.

In America, immunizations are frequently given over a course of three to four doses beginning at the age of two months. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 93 percent of toddlers have received at least three doses of the polio vaccine.

However, whereas the US and other countries offer needles made with an inactivated strain of the virus, certain countries deliver a vaccination utilising the virus in a weakened live form orally.

There is a slight possibility that the less potent virus will develop and start another outbreak.

The patient in Rockland County shares the same vaccine-derived strain as the last known case of polio in the US, a seven-month-old child who travelled from India to the state of Texas in 2013.

In reaction to the announcement, regional authorities in New York State have arranged immunisation clinics for this Friday and next Monday.

Polio is common in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but recent studies suggest that it has now spread to other parts of the world.

After finding the virus in samples of London sewage last month, health officials in the UK issued a warning to parents asking them to immunise their kids.