Rockland County urges unvaccinated residents to get polio shots

Rockland County Executive Ed Day and County Health Commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert are urging residents who are either unvaccinated against polio or have not completed the polio vaccination series to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

The warning follows a report from late last week that a Rockland County resident contracted polio, which marks the first time in over a decade that a new polio case was recorded in the U.S. The Rockland County government did not identify the patient, although a report in New York Jewish Week stated the patient was an Orthodox Jewish man who was unvaccinated and is now experiencing paralysis.

Polio is a highly contagious virus. Vaccines to combat the virus were introduced in the 1950s and the last naturally occurring cases of polio in the U.S. was in 1979. However, recent state data determined that only 60% of Rockland County children have received all three doses of the polio vaccine by age 2, compared to more than 92% of children nationwide. During 2021, the completion rate for childhood vaccinations in Rockland County was 42%, the lowest in the state.

“The Rockland County Department of Health is working with our local health care system and community leaders to notify the public and make polio vaccination available,” said Dr. Ruppert. “We are monitoring the situation closely and working with the New York State Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to respond to this emergent public health issue to protect the health and wellbeing of county residents.”

Day added that the continued risk of polio decades after the introduction of the vaccine “shows you just how relentless it is. Do the right thing for your child and the greater good of your community and have your child vaccinated now.”

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