CDC deploys team to investigate NY polio outbreak: - Daily Mail

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has deployed a team to investigate a polio case in Rockland County, New York, as local officials fear that there could be thousands of undiagnosed cases in the state.

New York state officials announced the detection of the nation's first polio cases in over a decade in Rockland County in July.

The detection of at least one symptomatic case likely means there are others elsewhere, though, and that is near-confirmed by the findings in Orange county.

Because in many cases the virus is either asymptomatic or so mild a person will not realize it is polio, one severe case could mean there are many others that are more mild.

One Rockland officials warned Monday that there could even be 'thousands' of cases circulating in the state.

Officials in New York are warning that there may already be 'hundreds' of New Yorkers infected with polio after at least three wastewater samples were detected across two counties just outside of New York City, Rockland and Orange (pictured) .

'There isn't just one case of polio if you see a paralytic case.

The incidence of paralytic polio is less than one percent,' Dr Patricia Schnabel Ruppert,health commissioner for Rockland County, told BBC.

'There isn't just one case of polio if you see a paralytic case.

The incidence of paralytic polio is less than one percent,' Dr Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, health commissioner for Rockland County, told BBC.

'So there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of cases that have occurred in order for us to see a paralytic case.'.

Dr Mary Bassett (pictured), New York health commissioner, warns that there may be hundreds of undetected polio cases in the state.

'CDC continues to collaborate with the New York State Department of Health to investigate a recent case of paralytic polio in an unvaccinated individual from Rockland County,'  the agency wrote to ABC.

'Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected,' Dr Mary Bassett, the state's health commissioner said last week.

'Coupled with the latest wastewater findings, the Department is treating the single case of polio as just the tip of the iceberg of much greater potential spread.

New York state officials launched polio surveillance efforts in response to the case confirmed on July 21.

Wastewater sampling detected polio in Rockland county in June

The vaccine was also rolled out globally, with the virus pushed back to just a few countries