MDHHS Starts Testing Oakland County Wastewater For Polio Virus

I am so old I can remember when America - more specifically Michigan scientists - conquered poliomyelitis:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2023/07/12/michigan-begins-testing-oakland-county-wastewater-for-poliovirus/70403293007/

Michigan starts testing Oakland County wastewater for polio months later than expected
By Kristen Jordan Shamus - July 12, 2023

Though Michigan health leaders initially announced that wastewater testing for poliovirus would begin in late December or January in Oakland County, that surveillance didn't start until last week — months later than expected.

The testing is part of an effort by state and federal health leaders to look for the spread of poliovirus in areas of the U.S. with low vaccination rates and connections to New York communities where a paralytic polio case was identified in July 2022.

Wastewater surveillance cannot identify who is infected or how many people or households are affected, but it can help public health authorities understand generally where poliovirus is spreading and help prioritize efforts to boost vaccination rates in surrounding areas.

A polio vaccine shot is given at Rockland County's Yeager Health Center in Pomona July 25, 2022.
"The timeline has been a moving target complicated by a number of factors," said Chelsea Wuth, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Among them is that this type of poliovirus surveillance must occur at sites that draw wastewater from 100,000-300,000 people, she said.

"No such sampling location existed that met that criteria," Wuth said. That meant that the state and local health department had to work with local sewer authorities to adjust.

"There were also concerns around identifying appropriate funding sources for the expenses and data-sharing agreements between the (local health departments) and laboratories, in addition to validating the assay," Wuth said.

"The process ended up being far more logistically complex than MDHHS had originally anticipated, but that was also part of the reason why CDC asked MDHHS to stand up a site. CDC wanted to evaluate how rapid sampling could be stood up for this pathogen and what the complicating factors were. MDHHS’ stand-up of poliovirus wastewater testing helped contribute to the national understanding of the potential barriers."

Wastewater samples dating to March 2023 will be screened for the virus.

Wuth couldn't answer questions from the Free Press about which communities in Oakland County are included in the wastewater testing, how they were chosen or where the sampling site is located.

What is polio?

Polio is a virus that killed and crippled thousands of children in the 1940s and '50s. It spreads through person-to-person contact and can affect a person’s brain or spinal cord, causing paralysis or even death.

Third grader Frank Steinberger receives a shot during a polio vaccine trial at a Michigan school in April 1954. Some students received a placebo shot of distilled water.
“Polio is a debilitating disease that is preventable by safe and effective vaccines,” Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the state's chief medical executive, said in a statement. “Monitoring for polio in wastewater allows us to participate in leading technology that helps inform of potential risk, while vaccination also keeps our communities safe.”

What are the symptoms of polio?
Polio can spread silently through communities before anyone knows it's there. That's because most people who catch the virus don't have any symptoms. For 25% of people, symptoms are flulike and can include:

>Sore throat
>Fever
>Exhaustion
>Headache
>Nausea
>Stomach ache

It's the severe cases that can be devastating. Anywhere from 1 to 5 in 100 people can develop meningitis from a polio infection. That can cause potentially life-threatening swelling of the brain or the lining around the spinal cord, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A smaller proportion of people are paralyzed by the virus, which can lead to permanent disability and, in some cases, death.

How many polio cases have been identified in the U.S.?

The virus was thought to be eradicated in the United States until a case was identified in summer 2022 in a man from Rockland County, New York. He contracted vaccine-derived paralytic polio.

Wastewater surveillance in southeastern New York sewer sheds later discovered more than 100 positive samples not only in Rockland County, but also in Orange, Sullivan and Nassau counties along with New York City, suggesting the virus had been spreading undetected for months in that region, according to the New York state health department.

It triggered a disaster emergency in New York and a huge vaccination push. The Rockland County case is only the second in the U.S. since 1979 with known community transmission of poliovirus, according to a CDC report published in August.

The U.S. is now once again considered a country with circulating poliovirus.....

More at the hyperlink, above.