Britain was declared polio-free in 2003 and the last outbreak was in 1984, making the current outbreak the first outbreak since the 1980s. On Wednesday, the UK Health Insurance Agency (UKHSA) announced that a vaccine-derived polio virus had been detected in sewage from north and east London in February and April, indicating that it had spread between people. Health experts believe the virus was probably introduced by a person who had recently been given an oral polio vaccine containing a live virus, which was then excreted in the feces, entering the sewers system in London. Polio can be transmitted through poor hand hygiene and, less commonly, through coughing and sneezing. The virus multiplies in the gut and infected people secrete large amounts of the virus in their feces for several weeks. Although the bizarre vaccine-derived polio virus is collected every year in British sewage, this latter virus has mutated over time and is now classified as a “vaccine-derived” polio virus type 2 (VDPV2), which is referred to as more like wild polio. In rare cases it can infect the spinal cord and the base of the brain, causing paralysis, usually in the legs, which develops over hours or days. If the respiratory muscles are affected, it can be life threatening.
Lower vaccine intake in London
Children are regularly vaccinated against polio in Britain, but officials are particularly concerned that young people have been vaccinated in London less than the rest of the country, with about one in 10 not vaccinated at all and about 30% unvaccinated. as teenagers. North London has some of the worst polio vaccination rates in the country, with about a third of children in Hackney and the City of London failing to get a first vaccine in 12 months and nearly a quarter missing a vaccine. at 24 months. Coverage across the capital for three installments was below 85 per cent in eight of London’s 33 local authorities in the 2020-21 academic year, and about a third of children had not received preschool or adolescent support. A recent UKHSA report also found that in Hillingdon, west London, only 35 per cent of teens had been screened for polio, the worst recruitment in the country.
