Health officials have confirmed that an unvaccinated suburbian individual from Recent York City is the country’s first polio case after almost a decade.

As the primary case of polio since 2013, the case was reported in Beth Cefalu of Rockland County, about 36 miles north of Recent York City.

While the state and county health departments said the patient is not any longer considered dangerous, she has developed polio paralysis, which is irreversible. Tests ran by the state health department’s lab also showed that the patient previously received an oral vaccine for polio — one which’s now not administered within the U.S.

In a recent statement, the state department suggested that the case of the highly contagious virus could have originated from outside of the country.

“We’re monitoring the situation closely and dealing with the Recent York State Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to answer this emergent public health issue to guard the health and wellbeing of county residents,” Rockland County Health Commissioner Patricia Schnabel Ruppert said.

Officials have since encouraged healthcare providers to observe out for possibly more cases. In addition they urged people in the world not yet vaccinated to get the vaccine as soon as possible.

Per polio experts, the world where the case was detected holds concern since it was the epicenter of a giant measles outbreak in 2018-2019 fueled by low vaccination rates amongst communities of Hasidic Jews. Because the nation’s worst measles epidemic in 27 years, the outbreak affected 312 people, nearly losing the country’s measles-free status.

“I feel it’s concerning because … it will probably spread. If there are unvaccinated communities, it will probably cause a polio outbreak,” said Walter Orenstein, a polio expert at Emory University.

“The inactivated polio vaccine we’ve could be very effective and really protected and will have prevented this. We want to revive our confidence in vaccines.”

The CDC said that while the chance is low for unvaccinated people, getting the really useful three doses of injectable polio vaccine is encouraged.