Vaccine clinics for polio opened Friday in Rockland County after health officials announced a case of polio in the county Thursday.

The clinic was held at Pomona Health Complex from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.  and will be held again on Monday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.    

Rockland County Health officials say if individuals are not vaccinated or fully vaccinated against polio, it is important to get to the clinic and get the shot.

"The reason why polio is rarely seen is thanks to the wide availability of safe and effective vaccines," said Rockland County Executive Ed Day.

According to the county health commissioner, an unvaccinated young adult is paralyzed from polio. This is the first case in Rockland County in a decade.

 The person had not been out of the country, but state health officials say they believe the patient contracted the illness from someone who had received an oral polio vaccine overseas.

A strain of weakened polio virus is used in the oral vaccine and that can sometimes cause an infection.

For that reason, the oral vaccine was discontinued in the United States back in 2000.

Polio is a viral disease that may affect the neurologic system, causing muscle weakness and, in some cases, results in paralysis or death.

Rockland County officials say we can't have what they call vaccine hesitancy. They say that's what caused the measles outbreak in the county a few years ago, which is another illness that was basically eradicated in the United States.

County health records showed that 80% of people who contracted measles during that outbreak were not vaccinated.