British health officials began a campaign encouraging London children to receive polio booster vaccinations after trace amounts of poliovirus were detected in waste samples.
Even though a case of polio has not been recorded in Britain for nearly four decades, British officials urge citizens to take proactive steps to ensure it does not experience a resurgence.
The UK Health Security Agency said in June that poliovirus had been detected in wastewater from a regional sewage treatment facility. Successive testing reveals that the virus was present in wastewater from eight areas in the north and east parts of London.
The agency has begun increased wastewater surveillance and supervision in London and will soon expand efforts to other parts of the nation, the UK agency said.
Historically, the illness primarily affects children and can be disabling and life-threatening in a small percentage of patients. Only around one to five out of 1000 people infected with poliovirus will develop issues more serious than the virus’s usual symptoms, which are flu-like and last two to five days.
The severe issues, such as paresthesia, meningitis, and paralysis, significantly damage the brain and spinal cord.
In the coming weeks, London clinics plan to offer an extra dose of the polio vaccine to children between one and nine years old, according to the UK Health Security Agency.
Doses of the booster are intended to strengthen children’s immune defenses. The boosters are injections containing inactivated poliovirus.
“This booster dose will add an extra layer of protection,” claimed Kathleen O’Reilly, associate professor in statistics for infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “The inactivated polio vaccine is very good at protecting against paralysis, but it isn’t perfect, so further doses outside of the ‘infant schedule’ are sometimes needed.”
A recent case of polio reported in the U.S. earlier this summer involved an unvaccinated adult experiencing weakness and paralysis. This case, a resident of Rockland County along the Hudson River north of New York City, was the first U.S. case since 2013.
Israel and Malawi, which also had been polio-free for years, recently reported cases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises parents to ensure their children’s vaccinations are up-to-date. Two types of vaccinations can help prevent polio: inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). Only IPV has been used in the U.S. since 2000, although OPV is still used throughout much of the world.
The CDC claims that people with two doses of IPV are 90% resistant to polio, while those who receive three doses are 99% to 100% protected.
However, some might be hesitant to receive vaccines as the potential contamination of oral polio vaccines (OPV) with a virus called SV40 in the mid-1900s seemingly led to an increased risk of cancer. A study by the Institute of Medicine’s Immunization Safety Review Committee concluded that “moderate to strong lines of biological evidence support the theory that SV40 contamination of polio vaccine could contribute to human cancers.” However, the same study assured readers that “the vaccine in current use is free” of the contaminating virus.
As cases and indicators of potential polio infections are on the rise around the world, health officials urge families to take the necessary precautions to prevent the disease.
