UK health officials are urging people who may not be up to date on their polio shots to get vaccinated after poliovirus was found during routine surveillance of London sewage samples.
Investigations are underway after several closely related viruses were found in sewage samples from the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works taken between February and May, said the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in a statement on Wednesday.
« It is normal for 1 to 3 ‘vaccine-like’ polioviruses to be detected each year in UK sewage samples but these have always been one-off findings that were not detected again », the UKHSA said.
« These previous detections occurred when an individual vaccinated overseas with the live oral polio vaccine returned or travelled to the UK and briefly ‘shed’ traces of the vaccine-like poliovirus in their faeces », it added.
