Gransnet forums

News & politics

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

(39 Posts)
Charleygirl5 Thu 23-Jun-22 09:27:10

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.

Yammy Thu 23-Jun-22 09:15:07

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?

Esspee Thu 23-Jun-22 09:01:43

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.

PamelaJ1 Thu 23-Jun-22 08:25:18

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.

LizzieDrip Thu 23-Jun-22 08:23:02

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!

DiamondLily Thu 23-Jun-22 07:38:15

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."

tanith Thu 23-Jun-22 07:32:23

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

JaneJudge Thu 23-Jun-22 07:19:33

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)

Esspee Thu 23-Jun-22 07:07:43

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.

DiamondLily Thu 23-Jun-22 07:04:37

"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

M0nica Thu 23-Jun-22 06:55:38

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.

Ashcombe Thu 23-Jun-22 06:30:27

Information about this is here:-

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

vegansrock Thu 23-Jun-22 06:16:19

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

DiamondLily Thu 23-Jun-22 05:02:01

I remember this disease, as a child. Sad that it's been found again, in our water supply, after so long without it.

'The NHS are launching a campaign to contain polio by contacting the parents of unvaccinated children after health chiefs declared a national incident last night following the return of the disease for the first time in nearly 40 years.

Great Britain was pronounced clear of polio in 2003 with the last case coming in 1984, but this week, experts repeatedly found samples of it in a waste water site in London."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10943987/NHS-plan-contain-polio-contacting-parents-unvaccinated-children-source-search-continues.html

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/polio-uk-london-cases-vaccine-sewage-b2106741.html