'Silent' spread of polio in New York drives CDC to consider additional vaccinations for some people - CNN

The case was found In Rockland County, which has a stunningly low polio vaccination rate.

"The spread is always a possibility because the spread is going to be silent."

A team of CDC disease detectives traveled last week from agency headquarters in Atlanta to Rockland County, and they are "quite nervous" that polio "could mushroom out of control very quickly and we could have a crisis on our hands," said a community health leader who has met with the team.

"They are -- what is the opposite of cautiously optimistic?" said another community leader, an expert in vaccine education, who has also met with the CDC team in Rockland County.

Unvaccinated and undervaccinated people are vulnerable, and polio vaccination rates in Rockland County and neighboring Orange County, just north of New York City, are about 60%, compared with 93% nationwide.

About 3 in 4 people infected with polio don't have symptoms, but they're still capable of spreading the virus to others, according to the CDC.

This week, Rockland County and local health-care providers distributed an infographic in English and Yiddish that announced, "Polio is spreading in Rockland County."

The vaccine educator in Rockland County said that at the meetings with the CDC team, "we spoke about the need for messaging that resonates, and a press release is not going to cut it."

Dr.

Mary Leahy, CEO of the largest health-care provider in Rockland County, Bon Secours Charity Health System, a member of WMCHealth, has attended meetings with the CDC and said that to get people who are not vaccinating their children against polio to understand the severity of the disease, "I turn to the grandparents and the great-grandparents who actually lived through the days of polio in the '40s and '50s."

That makes sense to Romero.