Iran Press/ America: State health officials hope that the order by Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York will allow emergency service workers, midwives, and pharmacists to administer the polio vaccine. The declaration also requires health care providers to send polio immunization data to New York health officials so that they can determine where in the state to target vaccination efforts.
“On polio, we simply cannot roll the dice,” Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the state health commissioner, said in a statement on Friday. “Do not wait to vaccinate.”
The samples tested positive for poliovirus that can cause paralysis in humans, according to state health officials. Unvaccinated individuals who live, work, go to school, or visit Orange, Rockland, Nassau, New York City and Sullivan are at the highest risk of paralytic disease, officials said.
The first polio case in nearly a decade was identified in July in New York State. Officials said an unvaccinated man in Rockland County was infected by the virus that had been shed from someone who received the oral polio vaccine, which has not been administered in the United States since 2000. The oral vaccine is safe but contains small amounts of weakened live virus that can circulate and strengthen if communities are under-vaccinated.
No other cases have been identified by the state, but officials have been monitoring wastewater for polio — which is typically found in the fecal matter of an infected person — to track whether the virus is spreading.
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