Baron Kamal added that The agencies responsible for investigations are using tools “unparalleled in the world” to understand how to “follow along pipelines” in order to determine the origin of the virus.found during routine analysis in the British capital.Kamal emphasized that the exact location could be limited to “houses or streets”. “Theoretically, it might be possible to find individual buildings or streets,” he said.
Health officials stressed that the risks to the population remain very low but That there is a possibility that the virus, which was eliminated in the country in 2003, will spread to the community.
The UK Health and Safety Agency (UKHSA) launched a national alert on Wednesday after traces of the polio virus were identified between February and June in routine monitoring samples at the Becton wastewater treatment plant that serves nearly four million people in the north and east of the capital. .
The discovery of this polio virus “suggests that There is likely to be some prevalence among closely related individuals in North and East London‘, although it has not yet identified any case of an infected person. The virus was only found in sewers.
Detection of the original
Members of Parliament questioned the Executive about actions taken after the samples were identified.Lord Kamal has confirmed that the NHS, Britain’s National Health Service, will “contact” parents of children in London who have not been vaccinated against polio. He added that the government’s “clear” message was for all residents to make sure their vaccines were up-to-date.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed that It is possible that the detected virus originated from a person who was recently vaccinated Against polio in another country.
The annual discovery in the sewers of one of the three types of polio vaccine strains is considered normal in the UK by people who have been vaccinated abroad with oral vaccines made of live virus that can leave traces in their faeces.
“It’s mixed in with a lot of other things,” Barun Kamal said. “But what we have to try to figure out is how to go along the canal, in a way, and check the individual tubes to see if we can pinpoint the source.”
What is the polio virus and how does it spread?
The polio virus is highly contagious and can be transmitted through an infected person’s coughs and sneezes, as well as through food, water, or objects that have come into contact with an infected person’s feces.The disease can cause paralysis and has no cure, and mainly affects children under the age of five, although it can also affect unvaccinated adults.
The virus has been eradicated from most parts of the world thanks to extensive and ongoing global vaccination programmes, but It is still found in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.
In the United Kingdom, where the last case of polio was recorded in 1984, statistics show that 95 percent of children up to the age of two have been vaccinated with the correct number of doses of the vaccine.
In London, the numbers drop below 90%. According to the BBC, in London only 86 per cent of the population receives the three doses compared to more than 92 per cent in the rest of the UK..
UKHSA thinks so The virus may have arrived in the UK earlier this year by someone who was vaccinated abroadpossibly in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Nigeria and it is possible that this person infected other individuals.
The agency urged doctors and health professionals to “Extensively investigate and report any suspected cases of inexplicable acute flaccid paralysis.” For non-infectious reasons.
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.”
with agencies
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