New York governor declares state disaster emergency amid circulating polio virus | Latest | WION – WION

Governor Hochul issued an executive order this morning declaring a state disaster emergency over Polio across New York. He wants to increase vaccination rates and increase surveillance for polio, to help end this ongoing outbreak. Unvaccinated individuals are at the highest risk of paralytic disease.

The polio vaccination rate is alarmingly low in some New York counties, and the health department is aiming to boost the rate above 90%.

Some New Yorkers who completed their vaccine series should get a single lifetime booster shot, health officials said. Health care workers should also get a booster if they work in areas where poliovirus has been detected.

All children are advised to receive four doses of the polio vaccine, and adults who have received one or two doses should get the remaining one or two.

Polio spreads between people when hands contaminate with the stool of an infected person. One in 100 people infected develop severe disease such as permanent paralysis.

The chain of transmission that introduced polio to New York is thought to have originated from abroad in someone who received the oral polio vaccine. The oral vaccine uses a weakened form of the virus that still replicates, and can mutate.