Polio found to be back, in London, after 40 years.

What do you expect to happen when this government have allowed raw sewage into our waterways?

Information about this is here:-

www.gov.uk/government/news/poliovirus-detected-in-sewage-from-north-and-east-london

No one has caught it yet and they think the virus could come a person/people vaccinated abroad with a live virus.

Let us not overload the finding and its effects until they happen. The NHS is taking prompt protective action and the virus was found at a waste treatment site, not in a river.

"Health authorities have now declared a national incident and informed the World Health Organization (WHO) of the situation."

They seem to be taking it seriously, which is good, and are contacting parents of unvaccinated children, as a matter of urgency.

Vaccine take up (non Covid vaccine), dropped during Covid.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61896411

With so many anti vax people around it is unsurprising that we are seeing the return of illnesses previously thought to be under control, especially the common childhood illnesses from the past.
My personal view is that parents who do not allow their children to be vaccinated are guilty of child abuse.

vegansrock

What do you expect to happen when this government have allowed raw sewage into our waterways?

that waqs my first thought too instead the first point of call is to blame anti vax parents (who must be a minority anyway)

Hopefully it is as suspected that it’s from someone who has recently entered the country having had the live vaccine inoculation.

Yes, it seems that the concern is "a cluster" that have bern found, in the sewage, regularly, since February.

"Over the past four months, the UKHSA has found the polio virus in samples collected from the Beckton sewage works, which serves a population of four million in north and east London.

Scientists believe the virus originated from someone who was immunised abroad with the live oral polio vaccine, which hasn't been used in the UK since 2004.

That person then shed traces of the virus from their gut which were detected by the sewage sampling.

In rare cases, that form of the virus can then be transmitted to others and mutate into what is known as "vaccine-derived" polio.

Although weaker than the original or "wild" form of the disease, it can still cause serious illness, including paralysis, in people who are unvaccinated.

A tiny number of samples of the polio virus are detected each year in sewage surveillance, but this is the first time that a cluster of genetically-linked samples has been found repeatedly over a period of months."

This is not surprising. Ever since the discredited Andrew Wakefield scandal regarding the MMR vaccine, the number of children being vaccinated has consistently dropped. Add to that the anti-vax movement and we have a perfect storm brewing. I remember polio from my childhood; a friend of mine had it aged about 9 and was unable to walk for the rest of her life. The current generation of young parents have lived through a (generally) blissful time when these terrible childhood illnesses have been largely eradicated - but with low vaccine uptake, they will re-surface. God forbid!

Well I think that we are so fortunate that this has been found.
The virus will have travelled from someone’s toilet to the treatment works where it was detected.
Not through our waterways.
We use dead vaccines, some other countries use live oral vaccines, people travel from those countries to the U.K. and bring it with them.
Lots of information online.

All the former childhood illnesses, measles, mumps rubella, whooping cough etc are reappearing. For most children they are mild but for the few the results can impact the rest of their lives.

Having known two people who have suffered the consequences of Polio since the 50s. One still with a perceivable very bad leg and the other chest complaints I would be the first in the queue if I had unvaccinated children.
Maybe too difficult but shouldn't the government be monitoring and testing people arriving from Countries where the live vaccine is being used.
I can recall with my parents and friends being channelled off a plane to special rooms when we were coming back from a country where Cholera had broken out. One of the parties did show they had it and was in quarantine and I was not allowed back to college until they showed a clear sample. If they could do that in the late 1960's why not know?

A very good friend of mine is an "old Polio" and with age and infirmity, she can barely walk now. In her youth she used to hop along, but not nowadays.

"The virus will have travelled from someone’s toilet to the treatment works where it was detected.
Not through our waterways."

When they found this in the sewage will they have stopped dumping sewage in the waterways from that sewage works? If not, this is in our waterways thanks to the polluting policy of this government.

I think it’s wrong to put the emphasis on folks ‘bringing it in’ from countries using live vaccines. This has always been the case. The reason it’s causing a problem now is because routine childhood vaccine uptake is so low - apparently as low as 70% in some parts of London. In the past the ‘vaccine-induced virus’ had nowhere to go; it couldn’t find a host because almost everyone had been vaccinated against it so it simply disappeared. Now this isn’t the case and, as previously mentioned, all these childhood illnesses are re-appearing. And they are awful diseases! Get children vaccinated against them!!!

Yes, I've got an older friend who had it, as a child. She had to attend a "special school", and she dealt with it pretty well.

But, now, in old age, she's developed Post Polio Syndrome - which is causing breathing problems, and limb problems, and she is becoming more and more incapacitated.

It's an awful disease - and it's a great shame it's come back.?

Israel are reporting new cases, and Nigeria and the Middle East have ongoing problems with it.

Hopefully, it can be contained - but people need to get their children vaccinated.

I had polio as a child - very mildly fortunately and when the vaccination came out I was there with my arm at the ready. It was the day when our school danced around the Maypole and the air smelled of the vaccine!!!

It is know.. I remember a patient who became infected, they had not been vaccinated and he picked it up from his baby's nappy.

Andrew Wakefield has a lot to answer for and is still happily spreading his anti vaccine message in America. I fear for parents who will come to regret listening to him.

Do the vaccines we all received as children continue to protect us all these years later?

Good question maddyone. I’m sure one of the brilliant GN community will come back with an answer.

maddyone, my understanding is that we have lifelong immunity from childhood vaccination. Others may know more than me.

A relation had polio in the 40s and developed Post-Polio Syndrome in later life, with pain and some weakness in his leg. Horrible disease.

The length of immunity from different vaccines depends on various things, including whether the virus mutates a lot, like flu and covid, or not, like polio. I think polio vaccine is one which does give lifelong immunity, but then it became available in the 50s, I think, so some of us who had it then have not reached the end of our lives!

Anti-vaxxers who cause rates of uptake to fall have, like Andrew Wakefield (as Chocolatelovinggran says), a lot to answer for too. What do they gain from preventing other people's children from having the protection of vaccines?

The low uptake of the polio vaccine is only in London. Elsewhere it is around 95%.