Children in London to be Given Urgent Polio Booster Vaccine
An urgent immunisation campaign has been launched in London. Following detection of the poliovirus in the capital city’s sewage water, all children in Greater London between the age of one and nine will be offered a polio vaccine.
The initiative comes after news that the poliovirus has been detected in the UK for the first time in nearly 40 years. In an official press release published in June, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said: “The UKHSA, working with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has found poliovirus in sewage samples collected from the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works.
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Closely-related viruses were first found in sewage samples taken between February and May of this year. Investigations showed that “the virus has continued to evolve and is now classified as a ‘vaccine-derived’ poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2), which on rare occasions can cause serious illness, such as paralysis, in people who are not fully vaccinated.”
Since then, traces of the virus have also been identified in the following areas of London: Barnet, Brent, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and, Waltham Forest. Thanks to childhood immunisations, polio has previously been considered to be eliminated in most first-world countries.
Polio is a highly transmissible disease that can cause paralysis. The poliovirus is composed of an RNA genome and a protein capsid and spreads through person-to-person contact.
An urgent immunisation campaign has been launched in London.
Now the urgent immunisation campaign will see nearly one million children offered the vaccine, with parents and carers being contacted by their GP within the next month. Children will be offered the inactivated vaccine which has been in use in the UK since 2004 and contains a “dead” virus.
Consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA, Dr Vanessa Saliba, said: “All children aged one to nine years in London need to have a dose of polio vaccine now - whether it's an extra booster dose or just to catch up with their routine vaccinations.”
Saliba claimed that it is vital for parents to make sure their children are fully vaccinated but that the risk for the population who are vaccinated remains low.
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