"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to test wastewater to detect the polio virus in communities at highest risk for the life-threatening and potentially disabling illness.

The federal monitoring of wastewater 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 Rockland County, N.Y., in July. 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, most recently, Nassau County on Long Island.

Polio — once one of the most feared diseases in the United States, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis — was considered to be eliminated in 1979 after widespread vaccination halted routine U.S. spread. But the virus has been brought into the country by travelers."

Lena H. Sun reports for the Washington Post September 15, 2022. [2]