Polio

Explainer: traces in London sewage have led to concern that virus that causes disease could gain foothold in areas with low vaccination rates.

The concern is that the vaccine-derived poliovirus could gain a foothold in areas where polio vaccination rates are low. An oral polio vaccine is used in countries that are in the process of eradicating the disease. This suggests there may be a limited spread of the virus in the area. The UK and many other countries used to use this, but switched in 2004 to an inactivated polio vaccine, which is injected and contains a dead poliovirus that cannot replicate in the body. In a small fraction of cases, between 1 in 100 and 1 in 1,000, the virus damages nerves in the spine and base of the brain. The UK’s last natural polio infection was in 1984 and the country was declared polio-free in 2003.

Scientists in Britain have detected multiple versions of the virus in wastewater. Officials say the risk to the public is extremely low and urge people to ...

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Health officials in Britain are warning parents to ensure their children have been vaccinated against polio after the virus that causes the disease was ...

The polio vaccine is given to young babies in the U.K. as part of a combination vaccine. That person would then have passed the virus to closely linked individuals in London, who shed the virus into their feces. The last case of natural polio infection acquired in the U.K. was in 1984. The U.K. Health Security Agency said it believes the virus was “vaccine-derived,” meaning it came from someone who received the live polio vaccine abroad. “Most of the U.K. population will be protected from vaccination in childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, individuals may remain at risk," said Dr. Vanessa Saliba, an epidemiologist at the health agency. LONDON -- Health officials in Britain warned parents Wednesday to ensure their children have been vaccinated against polio after the virus that causes the disease was found in London sewage samples in recent months.

The rare polio virus discovery is the first sign since the 1980s that the virus could be spreading in the country.

- pain in the limbs Yet some immunisation efforts carry the very rare risk of causing polioviruses to circulate in areas where many people might not yet be vaccinated or areas that were poorly vaccinated - an event that could lead to new cases of disease while trying to demolish it. - stiffness in the neck The last polio case in the UK was in 1984, and “wild” polio is now only found in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with imported outbreaks reported in Malawi and Mozambique in 2022. Polio has been detected in sewage samples in London - the first sign since the 1980s that the virus could be spreading in the UK - but no cases have been found, authorities say. In the past, UKHSA said the detections occurred when an individual vaccinated overseas with the live oral polio vaccine returned or travelled to the country, and briefly shed the virus in their faeces.

No cases of polio have been identified so far, but health officials urged those who were not fully immunized to seek vaccines immediately.

The virus thrives in the gut and emerges in the feces of infected people. Until it is eradicated worldwide the risk of importation and spread in the U.K. and elsewhere will continue,” said Nicholas Grassly, a vaccine epidemiologist at Imperial College London. In up to 1 percent of patients, the virus can infect the spine and cause paralysis. British officials are now collecting additional samples and trying to identify the source of the virus. The last four samples collected appear to have evolved from this initial introduction, likely in unvaccinated children. Before the introduction of the polio vaccine, epidemics were common in Britain, with up to 8,000 cases of paralysis reported every year.

Health officials in Britain are warning parents to ensure their children have been vaccinated against polio after the virus that causes the disease was ...

The polio vaccine is given to young babies in the U.K. as part of a combination vaccine. The last case of natural polio infection acquired in the U.K. was in 1984. LONDON — Health officials in Britain warned parents Wednesday to ensure their children have been vaccinated against polio after the virus that causes the disease was found in London sewage samples in recent months.

British health authorities have declared a national incident, saying that several closely related viruses were found in samples taken in London earlier this ...

Between 2018 and 2021, there were seven cases of monkeypox detected in the UK. “Most of the UK population will be protected from vaccination in childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, individuals may remain at risk.” Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. It causes paralysis in children in less than 1 per cent of cases. Polio can be spread by poor hand hygiene and, less commonly, through coughing and sneezing. The UK’s last case of wild polio was in 1984 and the country was declared polio-free by the World Health Organisation in 2003, with low-risk for polio transmission due to the high level of vaccine coverage across the population.

"A successful transition of polio assets is essential to sustain a polio-free world, strengthen essential immunization and disease surveillance, and boost the ...

The mission focused on ensuring that essential functions are maintained in Iraq as it transitions out of Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) support. The polio transition process has been designed to build the capacity of the polio workforce to support broader health priorities, including improving essential immunization, disease surveillance and outbreak preparedness and response, in primary health care centres and beyond. The team paid a visit to the Central Public Health Laboratory, the Communicable Disease Control Department and the Integrated Surveillance Department. The team also visited one of Baghdad's primary health care centres to witness first-hand the performance of immunization and other essential health services.

The vaccine-derived poliovirus -- which originates from live attenuated polio viruses contained in oral polio vaccines -- still trigger outbreaks, most recently ...

David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said, “Vaccine derived poliovirus is now ...

David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said, “Vaccine derived poliovirus is now present in many countries around the world. Kathleen O’Reilly, associate professor in statistics for infectious disease and an expert in polio eradication, said, “These findings suggest that there may be localised spread of poliovirus, most likely within individuals that are not up to date with polio immunisations. Several closely related viruses were found in sewage samples collected from the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works from February to May this year. Most of the UK population will be protected from vaccination in childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, individuals may remain at risk.” The live oral polio vaccine has not been used in the UK since 2004, when it was replaced with an injectable inactivated polio vaccine. This behaves more like naturally occurring wild polio and can on rare occasions lead to paralysis in people who are unvaccinated.

Traces of type 2 vaccine-derived poliovirus were detected during routine surveillance of sewage in London.

The National Health Service will begin reaching out to parents of children aged under 5 in the capital who are not up to date with their vaccinations, the government said. “In this instance, the isolates identified between February and June 2022 are genetically related. The U.K. health security agency says it normally detects between one and three “poliovirus isolates per year” in sewage but they are normally one-offs and unrelated to each other. Surveillance, vaccination and investment to— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) #EndPolio🌍 is critical, as the #UK's announcement of environmental #poliosamples identified in London sewage reminds us. So far, the polio virus has only been detected in sewage samples but investigations are underway to establish if any community transmission is occurring. There is no cure, but vaccinations since the 1960s, mostly in childhood, have been a game changer allowing many countries to eradicate wild polio.

A. Polio clinical and laboratory surveillance · B. Polio vaccination check and offer · Background and interpretation · Polio immunisation coverage.

The UK is committed to global polio eradication and key to achieving this is maintaining high vaccine coverage (>= 95%) in the routine childhood immunisation programme. It is essential to maintain high uptake at the national, regional and local levels in order to reduce the risk of importations (including of vaccine-like poliovirus) leading to transmission in under-vaccinated communities and paralytic presentations occurring. While the UK stopped using OPV in 2004, several countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria have continued to use OPV containing type 2 virus for outbreak control. This has prompted the need to investigate the extent of transmission of this virus in Northeast London. UKHSA National Polio Guidelines outline public health actions for consideration when one or more vaccine-related poliovirus type 2 [Level 2 (C)] are detected in environmental samples. Vaccine-like type 2 poliovirus (PV2) isolates have been found in multiple sewage samples collected from the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works between February and June 2022.

The UK used to use a highly effective oral polio vaccine that came as drops. It has switched to the newer, injectable form. The NHS offers five doses from the ...

However, this is the first time that a genetically-linked cluster has been found repeatedly over a period of months. But that means some is then excreted in poo. This causes paralysis - usually of the legs. A tiny number of samples of the polio virus are detected each year in the UK during sewage surveillance. The last person recorded to have acquired the wild virus in the UK was in 1984. UK health officials say they have detected the virus that causes polio in a concerning number of sewage samples in London.

Poliovirus has been detected in London sewage samples, but no human cases have been reported so far.

The virus then replicates in the intestine, which can cause it to be excreted via faeces. “With the sewage samples, the genetic analysis indicates multiple chains of transmission, which suggests some people are spreading it among themselves,” she says. The major disadvantage of the oral vaccine is it can lead to vaccine-derived poliovirus in poorly-immunised populations. This strain could cause infection, but probably not severe disease, in people who have received the injected polio vaccine. These were previously one-off findings that occurred after a person received a live oral polio vaccine and shed the virus in their faeces. No cases of polio have been reported in the UK since 1984.

Results of the genomic sequencing analysis indicate that the current WPV1 isolate is genetically linked to a strain detected in Pakistan in 2019 and similar to ...

Countries, territories, and areas should also maintain uniformly high routine immunization coverage at the district level to minimize the consequences of any new virus introduction. WHO International Travel and Health recommends that all travellers to polio-affected areas should be fully vaccinated against polio. These symptoms usually last for 2–10 days and most recovery is complete in almost all cases. The virus is transmitted by person-to-person and spread mainly through the fecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (e.g., contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. The virus is shed by infected people (usually children) through faeces, where it can spread quickly, especially in areas with poor hygiene and sanitation systems. The incubation period is usually 7–10 days but can range from 4–35 days.

Experts' warning comes after data shows less than half 13 to 14-year-olds received booster in parts of England last year.

If you have a lot of virus circulating, the chances of it mutating is higher.” Official data shows that just 35% of 13 and 14-year-olds received polio boosters in Hillingdon, west London, which has the worst coverage in the country. He confirmed that public health experts believe the samples originated from someone vaccinated abroad. And in theory, it might be possible to find individual households or streets.” The agency typically picks up a handful of unrelated positive results for poliovirus each year, linked to people given the oral polio vaccine in other countries. Prof Paul Hunter, of the University of East Anglia, said: “Teenagers are not necessarily that well-protected against infection, particularly if they’ve not had the booster.

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the ...

So far, the virus has only been detected in sewage and no cases of paralysis have been reported. However, in some instances, the viruses have evolved to behave more like wild, naturally-occuring polioviruses that can cause illness in people who aren’t fully vaccinated. “Most of the U.K. population will be protected from vaccination in childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, individuals may remain at risk.” The UKHSA has launched an investigation to understand the scope of this spread and flag any suspected cases. The oral polio vaccine contains live, but weakened, polioviruses that can be shed in the stool of vaccinated people and thus end up in the sewers, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). If they remain weak, these poop-bound polioviruses can actually boost the level of immunity in communities with poor sanitation, by spreading to unvaccinated people. A strain of poliovirus that can sometimes cause paralysis has cropped up in the sewers of London and may be spreading among closely-linked individuals in the north and east regions of the city, the U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warned Wednesday (June 22).

Scientists in Britain have detected multiple versions of the virus in wastewater. Officials say the risk to the public is extremely low and urge people to ...

Here in the U.S., polio immunization is part of the routine vaccination schedule for babies and children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends they receive four doses of the inactivated polio vaccine. The U.K. was declared free of polio in 2003. Last year, the world recorded more than 600 cases of polio. And that's because of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic." So far, there have been no cases of polio detected directly in the U.K. But instead, scientists have discovered the outbreak through an indirect route. From 2019 to 2020, the number of polio cases worldwide almost tripled, NPR reported in April, resulting in more than a thousand known cases spread across nearly 30 countries. Polio causes permanent paralysis in people who are not fully vaccinated in about 5 out of every 1,000 cases. Scientists in England are quickly expanding surveillance of sewage samples to try and pinpoint where the outbreak occurred and whether it's still ongoing so they can stop it with targeted immunization. Polio spreads through the fecal-oral route. Transmission would require a concentration of people who had not yet been vaccinated." So the current hypothesis is that an infected person brought the virus into London and then spread it to others who weren't immunized.