Amid Spreading Polio Virus, Britain Kickstarts Booster Campaign For Kids Under 10

 

• Reuters reported that the polio virus is spreading in London for the first time since the 1980s, so the country has launched a polio vaccine booster campaign for children in London aged below 10.
• The U.K. Health Security Agency identified 116 polioviruses from 19 sewage samples this year in London. It first raised the alert on finding the virus in sewage samples in June.
• The agency said that the levels of poliovirus found since and the genetic diversity indicated that transmission was taking place in several London boroughs.
• No cases have yet been identified, but GPs will invite children aged 1-9 for booster vaccines to avoid a potential outbreak.
• Polio spreads mainly through contamination by fecal matter.
• The virus found in London sewage is mainly the vaccine-like virus, which is found when children vaccinated with a particular kind of live vaccine - now only used overseas - shed the virus in their feces. 
• This harmless virus can transmit among unvaccinated children and mutate into a more dangerous version to cause illness.
• Britain is also expanding surveillance for polio to other sites outside London to see if the virus has spread further.

https://www.benzinga.com/general/biotech/22/08/28457712/amid-spreding-polio-virus-britain-kickstarts-booster-campaign-for-kids-under-10-years-report