Health officials investigating the nation's first polio case in nearly a decade have detected the virus in wastewater samples, the New York State Department of Health said Aug. 1.
Officials launched wastewater surveillance efforts after identifying a polio case last month in an unvaccinated man in Rockland County, N.Y. The wastewater samples were collected in June, suggesting that the virus was present in the county before the polio case was reported July 21.
The wastewater samples were shared with the Global Polio Laboratory Network, which includes the CDC and World Health Organization. Scientists confirmed that the virus found in the water samples was genetically linked to the case in New York, along with sewage samples from London and Jerusalem.
The finding does not imply that the New York case was tied to travel in Israel or the U.K., health officials said.