A New York man who was recently diagnosed with polio has led many in the medical profession to speculate whether there might be an uptick in cases in the U.S.
The virus has been detected in wastewater from New York City, along with wastewater from the unvaccinated man’s neighborhood, according to a news release provided by the university. The man is paralyzed in his legs.
“It is crazy and unfortunate that something so preventable is now reemerging,” Dr. Josephine Sun, assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine, said.
Sun said that polio was an epidemic in the 1940s and 1950s that has largely been eradicated because of vaccines, and the virus has the potential to kill and permanently disable individuals, particularly children.
“We have noticed many patients who are now coming in for well-child checkups who have not been seen for their annual checkup since 2020,” Sun said. “As a result, they have not been getting their vaccines. Parents have said they were too afraid to leave the house during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though we are starting to catch pediatric patients up with their vaccinations, there are still unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children in the community.”
While no other polio cases have been detected in the country, health officials like Sun want to be ready, and she urges parents to also vaccinate their children against measles, chickenpox and diphtheria.
“There is no reason for our children to be the victims of diseases when we have the tools to fight them off,” she said.
