National incident declared over polio virus findings in London sewage

[Darat]

https://www.theguardian.com/society...als-declare-national-incident-over-poliovirus

"....Public health officials have declared a national incident after routine surveillance of wastewater in north and east London found evidence of community transmission of poliovirus for the first time...."​

We aren't looking at a polio outbreak but still an interesting story. I didn't realise we regularly screened waste water for polio

 

[Stellafane]

Oh crap.

 

[wollery]

https://www.theguardian.com/society...als-declare-national-incident-over-poliovirus

"....Public health officials have declared a national incident after routine surveillance of wastewater in north and east London found evidence of community transmission of poliovirus for the first time...."​

We aren't looking at a polio outbreak but still an interesting story. I didn't realise we regularly screened waste water for polio

It's screened for anything and everything!

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

From the link:

vaccine-derived poliovirus

That means people getting the live oral vaccine shed the virus and some unvaccinated persons contracted it.

We've always had this risk. It's why in the US we no longer use the oral vaccine. Only cases of the vaccine strain and not the wild virus strain were found in the years leading up to the switch from live to killed vaccine.

When you give live vaccine you make sure no one in the household is unvaccinated because they can get it from close contact with the vaccinated person. Generally one sheds the vaccine virus for a couple months. One does not become a lifetime carrier or anything like that.

The problem arises when the vaccine virus passes through the vaccine recipient. It changes allowing the next person it passes to to contract the disease instead of simply becoming vaccinated.

Only about 5% of persons contracting polio disease get the paralytic form.

Assuming the UK has also switched to the killed vaccine, you have some people who have had the live vaccine entering the country within the window they are shedding the vaccine virus. Or you have people who were infected with the vaccine virus entering the country while shedding the virus who then infect unvaccinated persons.

That can be vaccine refusers or immigrants and older people who were never vaccinated.

It isn't a risk to vaccinated persons except maybe some severely immunocompromised persons.

 

[Carrot Flower King]

^ We went to the "killed" vaccine early this century.

It is thus assumed (reports heard variously on the Beeb) that this has been brought in by someone vaccinated elsewhere in the world with a "live" virus and that there is a possibility of it having spread, as the reports of virus in sewage are over a few months now and a couple of different locations (as I understood what I heard on radio news - haven't seen a written report yet).

 

[Carrot Flower King]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/polio-vaccine-outbreak-uk-sewage-latest-b2107796.html

Oh, FFS!

Really/ That level of not being vaccinated against sodding polio?

Not to mention the loons out in the comments.

FFS, I can remember patients who had long-lasting effects of polio when I did the general bit of my training back in the '80s. And my dad's older sister had lifelong after effects from childhood polio.

Anti-vaxxers and the "cautious" and the "we just want safe vaccines" mob can all go **** themselves and should not be left in charge of children.

They do make me angry, as I've seen the consequences.

 

[Planigale]

Of relevance is what has happened in New York.

A young adult in New York has become the first US resident in nearly a decade to contract polio, state health officials say.

The unnamed patient in Rockland County is said no longer to be contagious, but has developed paralysis from the virus.

Officials say the person was unvaccinated, and was probably exposed to an individual who received a vaccine that contains the weakened live virus.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-62260454

This was the worry that might have happened in London, but hasn't as far as I am aware. Live / oral polio vaccine is no longer used in the US or Europe, so the person who was originally vaccinated must have been vaccinated elsewhere than US / Europe.

 

[Puppycow]

If memory serves, Rockland County has a rather unique population.

Yes, Wikipedia confirms:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockland_County,_New_York

The county has the largest Jewish population percentage of any U.S. county, at 31.4%, or 90,000 residents.[5]

Also, it's a hotbed for anti-vaccine sentiment:

https://www.vox.com/science-and-hea...ccines-measles-new-york-orthodox-jews-rallies