William Brangham:
That's right, Amna.
In the past few months, polio has reemerged in the Western Hemisphere. Eight cases have been detected in Israel this year. And the virus has been found in London's wastewater system. Now it's back here in the United States as well. In July, an unvaccinated man in Rockland County, New York, was infected and paralyzed by this preventable, but incurable virus.
Sewage samples taken in New York City show the polio virus had likely already been spreading there for months.
To discuss this, I'm joined again by Dr. Yvonne Maldonado. She's chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases and a professor of pediatrics at Stanford.
Dr. Maldonado, great to have you back in the "NewsHour."
So we have this one case of an unvaccinated man in New York getting polio and developing paralysis and this evidence that it is circulating in New York's wastewater.
Help us understand the context. How troubling are those two examples?
Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, Committee on Infectious Diseases Chair, American Academy of Pediatrics: Well, it is concerning.
I think people who are vaccinated should not be concerned. But for those who are unvaccinated, this is a real red flag. And the reason is that we have not seen polio in the United States since the 1970s and '80s. And polio was declared eliminated from the Western Hemisphere in 1994.
So the fact that we're starting to see not only a case of paralytic disease, but polio in the wastewater, is really concerning for ongoing community transmission. And people who are unvaccinated are at risk for developing paralysis.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7sa7SZ6arn1%2Bjsri%2Fx6isq2ejnby4e8%2BumaWhk2K1pq3LrZ9mnailsrPA0maqqK2emXq1tMRmmKWZoqJ6or%2BMp5ywZaCkuaq7jJyYrJ2jYrKusdGgnA%3D%3D