Official polio emergency ends in New York following mass vaccination effort

The New York State Department of Health says a state of emergency is “no longer necessary” to battle polio following its unexpected reappearance in New York this year.

The order allowed the state to loosen rules on who could administer polio vaccines, but it’s not needed now that some 50,000 doses of the polio vaccine have been given out and fewer samples of polio have been detected in wastewater, the department said.

“We have made progress – but the work to increase immunization rates and protect children from paralytic disease and other vaccine-preventable illnesses is ongoing,” outgoing Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said Monday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency in September – which expired Dec. 8 – after officials identified the polio virus in New York City as well as Nassau, Orange, Sullivan and Rockland counties.

Most of the 94 positive samples are genetically linked to a case involving a Rockland resident who became in July the first known New Yorker in decades to get the disease.

Hochul standing at a microphone.
A polio state of emergency expired on Dec. 8 after positive samples declined in New York.
Matthew McDermott

The department expressed confidence Monday that highly-effective vaccines against polio could keep the disease in check after more than 46,718 people under age 18 got shots since July.

A state press release also said: “With the number of positive wastewater samples declining over time, the emergency order was no longer necessary.”

Polio, whose symptoms include sore throats, fevers and fatigue, was once among the most feared diseases in the United States until Dr. Jonas Salk successfully developed a vaccine against it in the 1950s, which effectively wiped out the disease in the U.S. by the 1970s.

a picture of the microscopic polio virus
Polio was nearly eradicated worldwide until it staged a comeback in recent years.
Getty Images/Science Photo Libra

But the disease endured overseas until it staged a comeback stateside in recent years in communities with relatively low vaccination rates, including in New York where just 79% of kids in certain counties and zip codes had gotten recommended shots, according to Hochul’s emergency declaration.

While the fight against polio has turned a corner in New York, Bassett warned Monday that the war continues against the infectious disease, which spreads through contact with fecal matter or droplets from infected people.

“The work to increase immunization rates and protect children from paralytic disease and other vaccine-preventable illnesses is ongoing. We are unwavering in our commitment to keep up efforts to build out long-term vaccination strategies,” Bassett said.

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