- wording
- BBC News World
—
24 minutes
image source, Getty Images
—
–
All children between the ages of one and nine living in the Greater London Area will, within weeks, be offered a polio vaccine.
–
The decision was announced by the British Government this Thursday and it comes after traces of the virus, which in certain cases can cause paralysis and even death, were detected in the wastewater of eight districts of the UK capital.
–
The campaign will seek to immunize almost a million childrenincluding those who have already received it.
–
“I recognize that parents and guardians will be concerned (…) however I want to reassure them: no no one has been diagnosed with the virus and the risk to the general population is low,” British Health Minister Steve Barclay told the BBC.
–
Back to the past
Polio was considered a bad memory of the past in the United Kingdom, since in 2003 the country, along with the rest of Europe, was declared free of this disease.
–
image source, Getty Images
—
The British government aims to vaccinate around a million children between one and nine years of age
–
However, in June the alarms went off when traces of the virus were found at a wastewater treatment plant serving north and east London. These findings have seen surveillance spread to 15 other locations in London and at least 10 outside the city.
–
The resurgence of this disease is related to a vaccine that is used to combat it, which is applied in some countries and for which a weakened form of the live virus is used.
–
Although this type of treatment is safe and gives a large amount of immunity to the recipient, it also allows the virus to be transmitted to unvaccinated people in some cases. If the spread is not stopped, there is a risk that the virus used in the vaccine mutate to its most aggressive formthe one that causes paralysis.
–
The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA, for its acronym in English) assured that most of the samples detected correspond to the safe form of the polio vaccine, although it admitted that “a few” have mutated enough to be dangerous.
–
taking action
The findings prompted scientists advising the government to recommend that the government quickly launch a vaccination and booster campaign for children.
–
image source, Getty Images
—
Children are the most vulnerable to the polio virus and are at greatest risk of becoming paralyzed.
–
The initiative has two goals: to reduce the risk of any child contracting the virus and becoming paralyzed, and to boost immunity levels to complicate the spread of the pathogen.
–
The little ones will be offered the vaccine that contains a “dead” virus and, therefore, there is no risk that the current situation will repeat itself.
–
Why should only children be vaccinated? Because they are the most likely to be paralyzed by the disease.
–
international problem
Polio is not only a matter of concern again in the UK.
–
Traces of the virus have also been found recently in Israel and the United States, and even the latter country registered its first case of paralytic polio in almost a decade three weeks ago.
–
The authorities and scientists consider that the samples detected in the three countries are genetically related and have the same origin: a vaccine that uses the live virus of the disease.
–
—
–
Now you can receive notifications from BBC World. Download the new version of our app and activate it so you don’t miss out on our best content.
—
