Traces of polio virus found in London sewage as health officials declare national incident
Officials believe there has been some spread between closely linked individuals in northeast London - probably extended family members.
news.sky.com
The big news in the UK today is the story about traces of the Polio virus found in London sewage. The news tells us that the source(s) of the virus is likely to have came recently from Pakistan (not sure how they know this, perhaps) and to have recently been vaccinated for Polio.
"Several closely-related polio viruses were found in sewage samples taken between February and May. It has continued to evolve and has now been classified as a 'vaccine-derived' poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2).
Officials believe there has been some spread between closely linked individuals in northeast London - probably extended family members - and that these people are now shedding the type 2 poliovirus strain in their faeces.
Urgent investigations will try to establish the extent of community transmission and to identify where it may be occurring."
As a parent of an un-vaccinated child, I did not welcome this news today, although at that point it wasn't known that the virus were vaccine derived. Polio was the one virus I was genuinely concerned about when I took the big decision (and for me it was massive) not to vaccinate my child. The images of Ian Drury and other deformed Polio victims does not a pretty picture paint. I'm actually surprised that this news (vaccine derievd) is being made public on the same day that the initial announcement was made, tells me that this is a random, unplanned occurrence.
That said, anyone got any specific advice on dealing with a potential Polio outbreak (vaccine derived or otherwise), prophylactics, treatments etc?
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