Polio Virus Found In London Sewage According To The Uk Health Service

“It is normal for 1 to 3 vaccine-like polio viruses to be detected each year in wastewater samples in the UK, but these have always been isolated findings that have not been detected again,” the UKHSA said. “These previous tests were done when a person who was vaccinated abroad with the live polio vaccine returned or traveled to the United Kingdom and briefly ‘screened’ for traces of the polio virus that looks like a vaccine in his stool.” Recent samples have raised alarm as the virus “continued to evolve and is now classified as a ‘vaccine-derived’ polio virus (VDPV 2), which in rare cases can cause serious illnesses, such as paralysis in people who are not fully vaccinated. “, Said the UKHSA. No cases of the virus have been reported and the risk to the public is considered low. However, Vanessa Saliba, an epidemiological consultant at UKHSA, urged the public to check that polio vaccines are up to date. “Most of the UK population will be protected from childhood vaccination, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, people may remain at risk,” Saliba said in a statement. “The detection of a VDPV2 suggests that there may have been some spread between closely related individuals in North and East London and that they are now excreting the polio virus strain in their feces,” the statement added. Major global vaccination campaigns have long been underway to eradicate the wild polio virus. The UKHSA said the last such case of wild polio in the United Kingdom was confirmed in 1984 and the UK was declared polio-free in 2003. Vaccine-borne polio viruses, such as those recently found in London, are derived from the attenuated polio virus in the live polio vaccine used in some parts of the world. These viruses can change over time and behave more like the wild virus and the vaccine-derived polio virus can spread, especially among unvaccinated people. Symptoms of polio include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiff neck, pain in the extremities and, in very few cases, paralysis, which is often permanent. There is no cure for polio.