New health mishap in the UK. The British authorities announced this Wednesday “immediate measures” due to the detection in various samples of the London sewers of the virus that causes poliomyelitis, considered eradicated in the country since 2003.
The British Health Security Agency (UKHSA, in English) detailed that samples of several genetically related polioviruses have been collected between February and June at the Beckton wastewater plant, which serves about four million people in the north and the east of the city.
In the past, isolated cases of the virus had already been detected in wastewater, coming from people who had received an oral polio vaccine in other countries that can leave traces of a weakened version of the pathogen.
The UKHSA stressed that most of the population have been protected against the disease during childhood, which can cause spinal cord injuries and paralysis of some muscles. However, it estimates that about 14% of Londoners do not have the first three necessary doses of the vaccine.
However, the virus detected has now evolved and behaves in a similar way to a conventional organism, capable of being transmitted to unvaccinated people by air or by contact with faeces.
The health agency believes the virus may have reached the UK earlier this year from a person vaccinated abroad, possibly in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Nigeria. That person has possibly infected other nearby individuals.
The UKHSA stresses that no cases of the disease have been detected so far, but urges all doctors and health professionals to “investigate fully and report any suspected cases of acute flaccid paralysis” that cannot be explained by non-infectious causes.
It also calls on the centers to verify that their patients have received polio vaccines, as well as to put “particular emphasis” on the immunization of “new migrants, asylum seekers and refugees.”
