British health authorities on Wednesday announced a booster dose to fight the virus to all children aged 1-9, after evidence of the polio virus spreading to several parts of London. However, health officials confirmed that they have found ‘no cases of paralysis in people’.
Britain’s Health Protection Agency said in a statement, it has detected a virus derived from the oral polio vaccine in sewage water from eight London boroughs. The agency’s analysis of virus samples suggested that “transmission has overtaken the close network of some individuals.”
The agency said that no infected person has been identified so far and the campaign to give boosters to young children is basically a precautionary measure.
“This will ensure a high level of protection against paralysis and help reduce further spread,” the agency said.
The agency said it was expanding monitoring of sewage water to at least 25 other sites in London and nationally.
The Health Protection Agency said it was working closely with the WHO and health officials in the United States and Israel to investigate any links to the polio virus found in those two countries. According to the WHO, only one in 200 polio infections result in paralysis; Most people do not show any symptoms.
Virus in London “genetically related” to cases found in US, Israel
Polio specialist Kathleen O’Reilly from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said the polio virus spreading in London was “genetically related” to recently identified cases in the US and Israel.
“Further investigation is necessary to fully understand how they are linked, but it makes clear that this virus has the potential to cause disease,” O’Reilly said in a statement.
What are the symptoms of the disease?
Early symptoms of poliovirus include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting and muscle stiffness. In people paralyzed by the disease, death can occur in 10% of cases when their breathing muscles become paralyzed.
In rare cases, the live virus contained in the oral polio vaccine used in the global effort to eradicate the disease can mutate into new forms that are powerful enough to trigger new outbreaks. It is a frequent water-borne disease that mostly affects children under the age of 5.
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