The British Health Agency warns of the return of poliomyelitis after the discovery of several cases in – The Independent

It is the first time that a wild case of polio has been discovered on British soil since 1984. Is poliomyelitis back? The British Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warns of the discovery of the presence of the virus in London’s wastewater. If this happens one to three times a year, because the microdose of virus present in vaccines often ends up in the stool and therefore in the waste water, the finding made by the UKHSA suggests contamination between humans having given rise to a mutation, “vaccine-derived” polio behaves like wild polio. “The detection of a VDPV2 suggests that it is likely that there has been some spread between closely related individuals in north and east London and that they are now shedding the poliovirus type 2 strain in their faeces,” the UKHSA said. Parents told to make sure children’s polio vaccinations are up to date after number of virus samples found in London sewage https://t.co/7ePU6CZbhi— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) June 22, 2022 No wild cases since 1984 The agency health therefore invites the British to check that their children are indeed vaccinated against the virus. They are indeed the ones who are most at risk of poliomyelitis, and are most at risk of paralysis, the main symptom of the disease. No cases of wild polio had been detected in Britain since 1984 and the country declared itself free of any cases in 2003. The virus caused several epidemics around the world, mainly at the beginning of the 20th century. The only countries in which it still circulates in the wild are Afghanistan and Pakistan.