London:
About a million children in London will be offered a polio booster vaccine after the virus is discovered in sewage samples in the capital, health officials said Wednesday.
“Following the discovery of type 2 poliovirus in sewers in north and east London,” a targeted booster would be offered to children between one and nine, a statement from the health ministry said.
There are no confirmed cases of the disease, but it has been found at an increasing number of sewage treatment plants in the capital. It was first discovered at a treatment center in east London earlier this year.
The levels detected suggest “that there is some degree of virus transmission in these boroughs, which may extend to neighboring areas,” the statement said.
The last case of polio in the UK, which can cause paralysis, was in 1984.
The wild version of the virus now only exists in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but a type of vaccine containing small amounts of attenuated but live polio is still causing occasional outbreaks elsewhere.
Oral polio vaccine (OPV) replicates in the gut and can be passed to others through fecally contaminated water. So, while it won’t hurt the vaccinated child, it can infect its neighbors in places where hygiene and immunization levels are low.
Although weaker than wild polio virus, this variant can cause severe illness and paralysis in people who have not been vaccinated against the disease.
The discovery in the London sewerage samples suggests “there may be a localized spread of polio virus,” said polio eradication expert Kathlene O’Reilly.
That would most likely be in individuals who are unaware of their polio immunizations, she added.
The polio vaccination rate in London is nearly 87 percent, according to the WHO, lower than in the rest of the country.
“For the majority of the population who are fully vaccinated, the risk is low,” said Vanessa Saliba, an epidemiologist at the UK Health Security Agency.
“But we know that the areas in London where the polio virus is transmitted have some of the lowest vaccination rates.
“This is why the virus is spreading in these communities and the residents who are not fully vaccinated are at greater risk,” she added.
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