Poliovirus that paralyzed unvaccinated NY man in July is still spreading

The same strain of poliovirus that paralyzed an unvaccinated young man in New York's Rockland County this summer is still spreading in several areas of the state as of early October, according to a wastewater surveillance study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday.

The finding suggests that the virus continues to pose a serious threat to anyone in the area that is unvaccinated or under-vaccinated. The three counties with sustained transmission—Rockland, Orange, and Sullivan—have pockets of alarmingly low vaccination rates.

In Rockland, for instance, one county zip code has a polio vaccination rate among children under 2 years old of just 37 percent, according to state data. In Orange, a zip code has a vaccination rate of just 31 percent. County-wide vaccination rates of Rockland and Orange are 60 percent and about 59 percent, respectively.