British health authorities issued an alert after traces of poliovirus, a disease declared eradicated in the United Kingdom in 2003, were discovered in the London sewers.
The UK Health and Safety Agency (UKHSA) reported that the virus was detected in samples taken between February and June at the Becton Sewerage Station, which serves around four million people in the north and east of the capital.
The discovery of this polio virus “indicates that there is likely to be some spread among closely related individuals in north and east London”, says UKHSA, although it has not yet identified any cases of an infected person, the virus only has It was found in sewers in the UK.
It was “normal” to find one to three cases per year, mainly due to people vaccinated abroad with oral vaccines made of live virus that can leave traces in the stool.
However, this time the samples indicate a Virus keeps evolving It is now classified as a “vaccine-derived type 2 polio virus,” which can cause severe symptoms, such as paralysis, in unvaccinated people.
According to the authorities, the majority of the population was vaccinated in childhood, but there are some societies with a low degree of vaccination, where the risk of infection is greater, so people are urged to refer to the bulletins and update the vaccines.
According to the BBC, in London only 86% of the population gets three doses of the vaccine, compared to more than 92% in the rest of the UK.
The health agency believes the virus may have arrived in the UK earlier this year from a person vaccinated abroad, possibly in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Nigeria, and that that person may have infected other individuals.
The United States Health Services Authority (UKHSA) urged doctors and healthcare professionals to “widely investigate and report any suspected cases of acute flaccid paralysis” that cannot be explained by non-infectious causes.
It is also calling for health centers to verify that patients have received polio vaccines, as well as placing special emphasis on immunization for “new immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees.”
polio is Infectious diseases without treatment It mainly affects children under the age of five and can only be prevented with a vaccine. In some cases, it can cause limb paralysis. The virus spreads easily when an infected person coughs or sneezes, and it can also spread through food or water that has come into contact with an infected person’s feces.
The last case of polio was recorded in the UK in 1984 and the virus was declared eradicated in the country in 2003. Although the polio virus has been eliminated in most parts of the world thanks to a massive vaccination programme, the polio virus is still found mainly in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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