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

Alert

As of May 1, 2025, no poliovirus has been detected in New Jersey. 

A confirmed case of paralytic poliomyelitis was identified in July 2022 in Rockland County, New York in an unvaccinated adult. Wastewater surveillance detected genetically related poliovirus between April 2022 and February 2023 in New York, suggesting the presence of other asymptomatic or non-paralytic polio cases. Poliovirus can spread where vaccination rates are low.

As a bordering state, the best way to continue to keep New Jersey residents, especially children, safe from polio is to maintain high immunity across the population through safe and effective vaccination. All individuals – children and adults – who are unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated against polio should be vaccinated according to the ACIP routine and catch-up schedules.

PLEASE NOTE: Blood tests to assess immunity for people with no or questionable documentation of poliovirus vaccination are not recommended because of increasingly limited availability of antibody testing against type 2 poliovirus. If polio vaccination status is unknown and vaccination records cannot be located, it is recommended to complete the polio vaccination series with inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), especially before travel to destinations considered at increased risk for polio.

Polio

Health care providers, administrators, and clinical laboratory directors should report confirmed or suspect cases immediately to their Local Health Department by telephone.

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