All children between the ages of one and nine living in London, around one million, will be offered a booster of the polio vaccine after the virus is detected in the British capital's wastewater.
This was announced today by the government after the analyzes conducted by the UK Heath Security Agency (UKHSA), the public health system agency that deals with medical security, whose top management had already issued an ad hoc alert signed together with the National Medicines Agency (MHRA).
The virus, declared eradicated in the UK in 2003, was detected 116 times in wastewater during studies conducted on metrapolis plants.
As it had already emerged in June, the traces found are those of vaccine derivation of the type 2 poliovirus (VDPV2), which in defined rare cases can
seriously infect people who have not completed their vaccination cycles.
Polio can have disabling and in some cases even fatal consequences.
The Minister of Health, Steve Barclay, however, reassured Londoners by stating that "no one has been diagnosed with the virus" and the risks for the population (largely vaccinated) are very low.