Nearly 1 million children aged 1-9 in London will receivepolio vaccines. Health officials have reported "partial transmission" of the virus in the UK capital after detecting it in a sewage sample.
Polio, which was officially eradicated in the UK in 2003, causes paralysis in rare cases and can be life threatening. Although there are no confirmed cases at the time of writing, health officials recommend that children be vaccinated to ensure full protection against the virus. If you don't, you are more likely to get polio. That's why it's important to make sure you and your child have the latest vaccines.
The disease has not existed in the UK for at least her 19 years, so it is understandable that parents are concerned and have questions.
Here's everything parents need to know about the polio immunization program and why it was started.
that it was announced.
Health officials recommend polio vaccination for all children aged 1-9 in London to stem the spread of the virus . and prevent cases of paralysis.
Invitations will be sent to parents of approximately one million children within four weeks.
Why only London?
Alarms were first sounded in June after the poliovirus was discovered in a sewage system in Becton. Since then, viruses have been found in: Brent; Camden; Enfield; Hackney; Harringay; Islington and Waltham Forrest.
These regions are the first to be targeted for vaccination. No samples have been detected outside of London. Polio immunization coverage in the capital is lower than in other regions.
According to the latest statistics, almost 95% of children in the UK have received the correct dose by the time she is two years old. However, this drops to just under 86.6% of her in London.
When it comes to preschool boosters, only 71% of her London children have boosters by the age of five.
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What jabs are offered?
The UK stopped using her live oral polio vaccine in 2004 and switched to an inactivated polio vaccine.
If the poliovirus has been found in the sewage system, how come no one has been infected yet?
In countries dealing with live polio epidemics, some people are offered an oral polio vaccine, which is safe but uses the live virus.
As a result, health authorities may detect traces of vaccine-like poliovirus in faeces during routine sewage inspections. there is no.
However, a recent test in London found that the level of polio detected in the sewage and the "genetic diversity" of the samples detected indicated "some viral infection". There was cause for concern, as it suggests. an official said.
However, the virus has only been detected in sewage and no formal cases have yet been confirmed.
What's going on?
Some of the viruses found in recent samples have been classified as vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2). VDPV is an attenuated strain of poliovirus, originally included in the oral polio vaccine, but it has changed over time and behaves like a "wild" or naturally occurring virus.
This means that it can be spread more easily by unvaccinated people who come in contact with the faeces, coughs or sneezes of an infected person. In rare cases, VDPV2 can cause paralysis in unvaccinated people.
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Since February, 116 samples have been identified, although some of these samples may have come from the same person.
Didn't that happen in New York?
The UK Health Security Agency said it was working with health agencies in New York and Israel to investigate whether there was a link to "polio outbreaks" in those countries.
New York officials announced a confirmed case of paralytic polio in an unvaccinated person in July. And global health officials have confirmed that the case is "genetically related" to samples from sewage found in both London and Jerusalem.
Booster/Catch When should children jab outside of the Up program? The polio vaccine is usually given at her NHS when the child is 8, 12 and 16 weeks old. 1 Vaccine.
She was 3 years and 4 months old as part of a 4-in-1 (DTaP/IPV) preschool booster and a 3-in-1 (Td/IPV) teen booster.
Tell me more about polio
Most people with polio have no symptoms, but mild flu symptoms such as high fever, extreme fatigue, headache, vomiting, and stiffness. Some people suffer from similar symptoms. Neck and muscle pain.
In 1 in 100 to 1,000 infections, the polio virus attacks nerves in the spine and basilar brain. This usually causes leg paralysis that develops over hours or days.
Polio can be life threatening if the respiratory muscles are affected.
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