OHIO — When news broke in July about a case of polio in New York and officials discovering the virus in wastewater there, concern began to spread about the incurable disease that many thought had been wiped out. 

What You Need To Know

  • Health officials continue to investigate a case of polio in Rockland County, New York

  • The virus was also detected in the wastewater of neighboring New York counties

  • For more than four decades, polio has been considered eliminated in the United States by the CDC

  • However, it is not considered eradicated worldwide because the deadly, incurable disease does still rarely occur in other countries

After all, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has considered polio eliminated in the United States since 1979. However, it is not considered eradicated worldwide because polio does still rarely occur in other countries.

Spectrum News 1 spoke with Dr. Frank Esper, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Cleveland Clinic Children’s, about the disease. He said there is no reason to panic thanks to an effective vaccine.

He said chances are, many people have already gotten the shots.

“There’s no cause for alarm from our standpoint," he said. "If anything, to me, what it says is that our polio vaccines work."

It is a requirement to be vaccinated for polio in order to attend public school in the United States.

According to the CDC, 92.6% of children in the U.S. receive three or more doses of the polio vaccine by 24-months-old.

Four doses are recommended by age 6.

Since 2000, the only polio vaccine used in the U.S. is the inactivated polio vaccine, which cannot cause infection. The current case in an unvaccinated person in Rockland County, New York is a reverted strain of the oral polio vaccine, which is still used in other countries.

"This was not a wild virus that came out on its own," Esper said. "This was unfortunately a mutation. A reversion of a vaccine that’s no longer used in this country, but this can happen. This one episode — if anything — shows how good our polio vaccine works because we’re not seeing numerous cases over the last few months even though polio, this reverted polio vaccine virus, is in the wastewater system which means it's in the community, but we’re not seeing a lot of disease from it.”

Polio was once one of the most feared deadly diseases. The CDC said in the early 1950s, polio caused more than 15,000 cases of paralysis a year. 

But the majority of people who are infected do not have visible symptoms.

According to the World Health Organization, it mainly affects children under 5.

After the introduction of the vaccine in 1955 cases dropped significantly, and the disease was considered eliminated in the United States more than 40 years ago.

Prior to what’s happening now, there hasn’t been a case of community transmitted polio in the United States since 2013.

“The reason it can’t take root very easily in the United States is because we are so protected against it that it’s kind of stuck in the wastewater and can’t go anywhere," Esper said. "And that’s where we’d like to keep it."

He said this situation serves as a reminder of the importance of polio vaccinations.

“It just shows that you can’t take your foot off the gas pedal," Esper said. "You can’t just relax. You have to keep the pressure on against this virus because these viruses will take any opportunity to come back."

He said if you want to be sure you did receive the polio vaccine as a child or if you’re a parent and want to be sure your child’s vaccine status is up-to-date, it couldn’t hurt to reach out to your health care provider.