"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expanding efforts to test wastewater to detect the polio virus in Philadelphia and the Detroit area, targeting communities at highest risk for the life-threatening and potentially disabling illness, officials said Wednesday.
The expansion of wastewater monitoring for polio comes amid pressure to increase efforts to fight the disease after the first U.S. polio case in nearly a decade was discovered in New York’s Rockland County in July. Ever since the unvaccinated man was diagnosed, the virus has been detected in wastewater samples from nearby communities: New York City, Orange County, Sullivan County and Nassau County on Long Island.
Wastewater testing will occur in places with low polio vaccination coverage as well as counties with possible connections to the at-risk New York communities linked to the Rockland case of paralytic polio. Logistics for the testing are being worked out between federal and state officials, but once it is underway, testing will last at least four months."
Lena H. Sun reports for the Washington Post November 30, 2022.
