US declares polio virus outbreak with 100 infected in New York

About 100 New Yorkers may have contracted polio after the virus was found in sewage in some counties in the US state.

The statement comes from New York State Commissioner of Health, Mary Bassett, Russia's REN TV reports.

At the same time, the US Department of Health considers this outbreak of polio only the tip of the iceberg of a much larger potential spread of the virus.

The first case of polio was identified in Rockland County. Two more samples of the virus were found in Orange County sewage. After that, one confirmed case of infection was detected in a 20-year-old man who was not vaccinated.

US officials are urging citizens to get vaccinated to prevent a resurgence of polio, even though the chances of the virus spreading are low. At the same time, a surge in poliomyelitis is not ruled out.

Vaccination coverage for this virus in the US is over 90 per cent. Many were vaccinated in childhood and the vaccine lasts for life. But in the US, the polio vaccine has not been used in recent years.

Common symptoms of polio include high fever, extreme fatigue, headaches, nausea and vomiting, fever, and pain in the back of the head and muscles. The virus lives in the throat and intestines for up to six weeks is highly contagious, and can spread to the spinal cord, causing muscle weakness and paralysis.

Poliomyelitis is most common in infants and young children, occurring in conditions of poor hygiene. Less than one per cent of cases of infection with the virus leads to paralysis, and one in ten of them leads to death.