Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
POLIO FEARS AS VIRUS IS FOUND IN SEWERS
Families told to check kids are up to date with vaccine
POLIO is thought to be spreading in Britain for the first time since the 1970s, as the NHS is warned to look out for paralysis cases.
The UK Health Security Agency has repeatedly detected the poliovirus in the London sewage network and has called on families to check children are fully vaccinated.
It is thought someone from Afghanistan, Pakistan or Nigeria may have had the oral polio vaccine there recently.
The jab contains an “attenuated” form of the virus – weakened in a laboratory – which is then believed to have mutated and been passed on.
Dr Vanessa Saliba, consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA, said: “Vaccinederived poliovirus is rare and the risk to the public overall is extremely low.
“Vaccine-derived poliovirus has the potential to spread, particularly within those communities where vaccine uptake is lower. On rare occasions it can cause paralysis in people who are not fully vaccinated so if you or your child are not up to date with your polio vaccinations it’s important you contact your GP to catch up or check your red book.”
Polio enters the body via the nose or mouth and may go on to invade the central nervous system, destroying or damaging nerve cells that control muscles. There is no cure for the virus once infection occurs.
Polio vaccine uptake has dropped in recent years and is lower in the capital.
Jane Clegg, chief nurse for the NHS in London said: “The NHS will begin reaching out to parents of children aged under five in London who are not up-to-date with their vaccinations to invite them to get protected.”
But Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said he is “not particularly worried”.
He added: “As a country we have very high vaccination rates and we haven’t had any cases since [2003].”