VIRAL RISK
Over HALF of teenagers in parts of UK at risk of polio as health chiefs race to contain outbreak
PARENTS of unvaccinated kids have been urged to get their jabs up to date as health chiefs race to contain a polio outbreak.
It comes as data shows less than 50 per cent of teens in some parts of England aren’t vaccinated against the highly contagious disease.
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Polio has been found in sewage samples in North and East London.
Medics have warned that one in ten kids in the capital aged five are not vaccinated against the bug.
shows children in several London boroughs don’t have adequate protection.
In Hillingdon, West London, just 35 per cent of Year 9s have had their booster, with the local authority having the worst coverage in the country.
Read more on polio
It’s followed by Brent, where just a third of teens are fully vaccinated.
Other areas across the UK that have poor uptake levels include Nottingham, Leicester, Middlesbrough and Torbay.
West Berkshire had the highest uptake, with 98 per cent coverage.
The report states the pandemic had an impact on kids having their jabs and that uptake is still not back up to pre-pandemic levels.
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Vaccines were still offered during the pandemic, but at a slower rate.
These jabs are usually given in year 9, but some had to be pushed back to year 10 due to lockdown restrictions.
"Td/IPV vaccine coverage in the year 9 cohort in 2020 to 2021 was 76.4 per cent, recovering significantly from the 57.6 per cent reported in 2019 to 2020, although it is not quite back up to prepandemic levels," says the report.
Health chiefs have launched an investigation to find the source of the illness.
Experts have detected the bug in sewage samples in London.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has launched an investigation to protect the public from the spread.
In the , experts warned the virus had been detected in samples from the London Beckon Sewage Treatment Works as early as February.
Since then, the virus has continued to evolve and is now classed as a ‘vaccine-derived’ poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2).
Medics said that on rare occasions, this can cause serious illness such as paralysis in those who are not fully vaccinated.
The paper, published yesterday, stated: "The detection of a VDPV2 suggests it is likely there has been some spread between closely-linked individuals in North and East London and that they are now shedding the type 2 poliovirus strain in their faeces.
"The virus has only been detected in sewage samples and no associated cases of paralysis have been reported – but investigations will aim to establish if any community transmission is occurring."
One health minister today said it 'might be possible' to trace where the outbreak started.
Lord Kamall said: “It is mixed up with a lot of stuff and what we have got to try and work out now is how we go along the pipes and investigate individual pipes to see whether we can locate the source.
“In theory it might be possible to find individual households and streets but it is too early.
“This is really world-beating in what we are doing here, it is a first and it shows that we are ahead, but one of the issues with being ahead is that we detect things that would not have been detected earlier.”
Head of the vaccine epidemiology research group at Imperial College London, Prof Nicholas Grassly said there is concern that the virus may be circulating locally in London and could spread more widely.
Medics yesterday warned the emergence of polio in the UK reminds us it has not yet been eradicated.
The last case of polio being contracted in Britain was in 1984 and the country was declared polio-free in 2003.
What are the 6 signs of polio you need to know
The majority of people who get infected with poliovirus will not have any visible symptoms.
About one in four people with poliovirus infection will have flu-like symptoms that may include:
- Sore throat
- Fever
- Tiredness
- Nausea
- Headache
- Stomach pain
Symptoms usually last anywhere between two to 10 days before they go away on their own.
In very rare cases, polio can cause difficulty using your muscles, usually in the legs.
This is not usually permanent and movement should slowly return over the next few weeks or months.
Before a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, epidemics would result in thousands of people being paralysed annually and hundreds of deaths.
Experts believe a traveller – likely from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Nigeria - shed the virus in their stools after being given the oral polio inoculation.
But the bug has now spread to others after mutating, with the same strain being repeatedly detected in sewage samples.
Despite clear evidence of an outbreak, no cases have yet come forward.
And officials insist the overall risk to the public remains very low.
Dr Vanessa Saliba, Consultant Epidemiologist at UKHSA, said: “Vaccine-derived poliovirus is rare and the risk to the public overall is extremely low.
“Vaccine-derived poliovirus has the potential to spread, particularly in 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 if unsure check your red book.”
Polio is an infectious disease that can spread from person to person and most commonly affects children under the age of five.
The history of polio - everything you need to know
Polio is a condition that mainly affects children under the age of five.
Data from previous outbreaks shows that one in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis.
Of those five to ten per cent die.
Some of the first evidence of polio comes from Ancient Egypt.
A tablet from a stone carving in 1403-1365 BC showed a priest with characteristics of polio.
1798: It was given its first clinical description by the British physician Michael Underwood
1840: Was recognised as a condition by Jakob Heine
1840 - 1900: In the UK polio was a major health crisis in the Victorian England and there were also major incidents in Europe.
1916: New York experienced the first large epidemic, there were more than 9,000 cases and 2,343 deaths.
1928: Philip Drinker and Louie Shaw develop the 'iron lung' technology to help have children ravaged by the condition. Kids would spend two weeks in the device, which has today been made redundant by vaccinations.
1950: The illness wreaked havoc in the UK at this time. The country was rocked by a series of polio epidemics, with as many as 8,000 people suffering paralytic poliomyelitis.
1952: US saw over 57,000 cases. It was also in 1952 that Dr Jonas Salk started to develop a vaccine.
1953: Cases started to fall as jabs were rolled out.
1961: The oral polio vaccine was rolled out. Despite the advances, at this time there were still 79 deaths in the UK and 707 acute cases.
1962: Brits started to use the oral vaccine.
1988: Polio had disappeared from the UK, US and much of Europe but was still around in more than 125 counties.
1994: World Health Organization Americas region is certified polio free
1997: Last wild cases in the Western Pacific region are recorded
2002: Europe is certified polio-free
2011: China returned to its polio-free status
2012: At this point, polio is still endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and India.
2013: Outbreak in Syria
2015: Polio endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan
2016: Case of polio in Nigeria
2020: Type 1 was only in circulation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, while type 2 and 3 have been eliminated for over a decade.
2021: Five cases of polio globally
February 2022: First case of polio detected in Africa in five years, leaving a three-year-old girl in Malawi paralysed
The disease attacks the nervous system and in some extreme cases can lead to paralysis.
Polio is very contagious, and a person can transmit it even when they aren't sick.
In the UK, the polio vaccine is part of the NHS routine childhood vaccination schedule.
It's given as a jab when a child is 8, 12 and 16 weeks old. And two further shots are administered at 3 years and 4 months old, and at 14 years old.
However, one in ten kids in London aged five are not fully vaccinated against the bug.
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Jane Clegg, Chief nurse for the NHS in London, said: “The majority of Londoners are fully protected against Polio and won’t need to take any further action, but the NHS will begin reaching out to parents of children aged under five in London who are not up-to-date with their Polio vaccinations to invite them to get protected.
“Meanwhile, parents can also check their child’s vaccination status in their Red Book and people should contact their GP practice to book a vaccination should they or their child not be fully up-to-date.”
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