Polio

The last case of wild polio was contracted in 1984 and the UK has remained polio-free since 2003.

Why it matters: The discovery means it's likely there has been some spread of a "vaccine-derived" polio virus between close contacts in London, the agency said. What they're saying: "Vaccine-derived polio virus is rare and the risk to the public overall is extremely low," Vanessa Saliba, consultant epidemiologist at the health agency, said in a statement. - Polio virus samples will pop up after someone vaccinated with the oral polio vaccine shed traces of the "vaccine-like" polio virus in their excrement, the agency said. The concern: A "vaccine-derived" polio virus can cause serious illness, such as paralysis, in those who have not been fully vaccinated, the U.K. agency said. Driving the news: The health agency said it has found several "closely related viruses" to polio virus in sewage samples taken between February and May. The last case of wild polio in the U.K. was confirmed in 1984 and the country has remained polio-free since 2003.

The public is being urged to ensure polio vaccines are up to date, especially parents of young children who missed immunization.

The U.K. was declared polio-free in 2003, health officials wrote in the news release. The last case of polio in the United Kingdom was detected in 1984, making the current outbreak the first transmission in more than 40 years. British health officials are urging the public to ensure polio vaccines are up to date after the virus was discovered during routine London sewage testing.

U.K. health authorities have said they are urgently investigating a rare polio virus outbreak in sewage samples in London.

"In populations with low vaccine uptake it is possible that the live polio vaccine can spread from one person to another. It is common practice in the U.K. for children to receive an inactivated polio vaccine as part of their routine vaccination program; with three shots given before the age of one and another shot given at ages three and 14. Polio is a rare virus that can occasionally cause serious illness, such as paralysis, in people who are not fully vaccinated. On occasion, it can attack muscles used for breathing, which can be fatal. Generally, those who do become infected with polio display no symptoms, though some can develop a flu-like illness up to three weeks later. A number of waste samples from the Beckton sewage treatment works in Newham, east London tested positive for vaccine-derived polio virus between February and May, the U.K. Health Security Agency said Wednesday.

News originally published on the Global Polio Eradication Initiative website. The Global Polio Laboratory Network (GPLN) has confirmed the isolation of type ...

It is important that all countries, in particular those with a high volume of travel and contact with polio-affected countries and areas, strengthen surveillance in order to rapidly detect any new virus importation and to facilitate a rapid response. Any form of poliovirus anywhere is a threat to children everywhere. It is important to note that the virus has been isolated from environmental samples only – no associated cases of paralysis have been detected.

UK health officials are urging people who may not be up to date on their polio shots to get vaccinated after poliovirus was found during routine ...

Large global vaccination campaigns have long been underway to eradicate the wild poliovirus. But Vanessa Saliba, consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA, urged the public to check their polio vaccinations are up to date. There is no cure for polio.

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.

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.

"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 risk of infection from the disease, which causes paralysis in children in under 1% of cases, was also low because of high vaccination rates, the UK Health ...

UKHSA said it usually finds between one and three samples of poliovirus in sewage annually, but they have previously been one-offs. Polio, spread mainly through contamination by faecal matter, used to kill and paralyse thousands of children annually worldwide. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

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

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.

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.

Health authorities in the U.K. are urging residents to get vaccinated against poliovirus after the virus was found in sewage samples in London.

“It has the potential to mutate back to a strain that can behave as though it were the wild virus and cause disease in people who are unvaccinated,” he says. “Make sure your child is up to date with their vaccines and everything will be OK,” Dr. Russo says. Poliovirus is highly contagious and spreads through person-to-person contact, the CDC says. It’s a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV), the CDC explains. A smaller portion of people (less than 1%) will develop more serious symptoms that impact the brain and spinal cord, including: But the latest viruses detected in sewage has “continued to evolve and is now classified as a ‘vaccine-derived’ poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2), which on rare occasions can cause serious illness, such as paralysis, in people who are not fully vaccinated,” the UKHSA says. “It’s another example of public health at its best,” he says. It can also live in a person’s poop for several weeks. Vaccine-derived poliovirus has changed over time and behaves more like the wild virus. The virus was detected as part of routine surveillance, the UK Heath Security Agency (UKHSA) said in a press release. We’ve been close but it’s stubbornly hanging out in a few countries.” However, a successful vaccination program has made the U.S. polio-free since 1979.

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).

Polio, which can cause paralysis and even death, was detected in London sewage, although the U.K., like the U.S., has been deemed polio-free.

The U.K. said it plans to push parents of young children to get vaccinated if they are not already. The first polio vaccine was developed in 1956. “However, it contains a weakened, live form of the virus which can replicate harmlessly in the gut. In 2016, there were a few dozen polio cases across four countries, but in 2019-2020, cases nearly tripled. Global health organizations say that the eradication of polio is within reach, but that task has been frustrated by reappearance of the virus in countries where authorities thought it had been beaten back.” Over a long period the vaccine-derived virus might change to become more like wild polio.” The United States got that designation after its last case in 1979. The last case found in Britain was in 1984. But she noted the virus has the potential to spread, especially in areas where vaccine rates are lower. In places that lack adequate sanitation, it sometimes mutates to resemble the naturally occurring virus and can infect people who aren’t fully immunized.” Those who are vaccinated don’t need to worry, but others should get the vaccine, she said. People who receive the oral vaccine shed small amounts of virus in their feces.

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.

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.

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.