POLIO: A REVIVED DISEASE

Polio, one of the most fatal viruses in the early 20th century, has been rediscovered in the wastewaters of New York from June to July of 2022 Now that it has made its return, where does New York go from here?

Author: Wendy Rong

Editors: Shirley Chen and Hwi-On Lee

Artist: Jenny Luo

New York State governor Kathy Hochul has declared a state of emergency shortly following the discovery of polio samples in wastewater during June to July of 2022. Authorities have been urging the masses to vaccinate in an attempt to ameliorate the outbreak; since then, more than 28,000 vaccines have been administered to the public.

Polio, otherwise known as poliomyelitis, is a highly contagious disease with the ability to infect a person’s central nervous system which, in the worst case, can inflict permanent damage to a person's nerves, causing paralysis. The virus is spread from person to person through contaminated food, water, and contact with feces. Polio proved to be one of the most fatal epidemics plaguing industrialized countries in the early 20th century Similarly to the Covid-19 outbreak, the general public responded by avoiding large public gatherings and contact with strangers; however, the widespread introduction of vaccines during the 1950s and 60s brought polio outbreaks under control. Rotary International and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) launched efforts to immunize the world’s children against polio during the 80s, leading to a 99 9% reduction of global polio cases Since 1988, more than 2 5 billion children have been vaccinated, and as a result, in 2020, only two countries have reported cases of wild polio circulating.

However, despite efforts to eradicate it, wild strains of polio have been reappearing in developed countries. From January to June 2022, there have been reports of polio appearing in sewage samples in the U S , United Kingdom, Israel, and Northern Ireland In late July, an unvaccinated individual in New York City was reported to have contracted the virus, the first case of poliomyelitis reported in the U.S. since 2013. As a result, the Central Disease Center (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) have been working closely to analyze the