Chief State Medical Examiner

  1. Home
  2. Diseases & Health Topics A-Z List
  3. Polio

Alert

A confirmed case of paralytic poliomyelitis was identified in July of 2022 in Rockland County, New York in an unvaccinated adult. No new cases have been detected since that time. Wastewater surveillance in Rockland, Orange, Nassau, and Sullivan Counties and New York City showed genetically related poliovirus circulating between April 2022 and February 2023, indicating other asymptomatic or non-paralytic polio cases in these New York counties. Poliovirus can spread where vaccination rates are low.

As a bordering state, the best way to keep New Jersey residents and children polio-free is to maintain high immunity across the population through safe and effective immunization. All children and adults who are unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated against polio should be vaccinated with inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) according to the ACIP routine and catch-up schedules (revised June 2023).

As of September 1, 2023, no poliovirus has been detected in New Jersey.

Polio

Report Confirmed or Suspect Cases Immediately to the Local Health Department.

Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a very contagious disease caused by the poliovirus which lives in the throat and digestive tract and invades the nervous system. The virus is found in the stool of infected people. In its most severe form, it causes nerve injury leading to paralysis (cannot move your body), difficulty breathing and sometimes death. People become infected with polio by swallowing the virus. This can happen when infected people do not wash their hands properly after using the bathroom and then touch objects or food that may be placed in another person’s mouth. There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines to prevent polio.

For the Community
Healthcare Providers
Last Reviewed: 8/31/2023