Several hundred undiagnosed cases? Silent spread of polio alarms US authorities

Several hundred cases of undiagnosed polio must be circulating in the United States, according to a senior official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Polio has also been found in New York City sewage, indicating a silent spread of the highly contagious virus.

About The Spread

The authorities’ warning follows a report last month of an unvaccinated man paralysed by the virus in New York. This was the first case of polio in the United States in nearly a decade, with the last reported case in 2013.

Dr Jose Romero, director of the CDC’s National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases, described the New York case as “just the very, very tip of the iceberg.” He also stated that there “must be several hundred cases circulating in the community.”

According to the CDC, approximately three out of every four people infected with polio do not have symptoms, but they are still capable of spreading the highly contagious virus to others. Only about one in every 200 infected people will experience paralysis. Some of the paralysed cases may be fatal because people are unable to breathe. “Most cases are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and those symptoms are often missed. So there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of cases that have occurred in order for us to see a paralytic case,” she added.

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