News that is generating alarm in the scientific community and beyond: in Great Britain , after twenty years, the polio virus has reappeared.
The news, which quickly bounced on the English-language media, was also picked up on its social pages by the well-known virologist Roberto Burioni , who explains: “This is bad news. In London there is the polio virus again, which has not been seen for years. If you have had the bad idea not to vaccinate your children against polio (or you are not vaccinated), do so immediately . "
Then the clarification: "Man is the only natural host of the polio virus, so if there is the virus in the London sewers it means that in London there are people who have polio at the moment".
Traces of the virus were in fact found during routine London wastewater testing. To be precise: to the north and east of the British capital, in samples taken between February and May.
The UK health agency is working with other entities, including the World Health Organization , to urgently investigate the matter. The last case of wild polio in the UK dates back to 1984, and the country was declared polio-free in 2003.
Wild polioviruses have been eradicated in most of the world, except in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where they remain endemic. Vaccine-derived poliovirus - which originates from live attenuated polio viruses contained in the oral polio vaccine - still triggers epidemics, as recently happened in Ukraine and Israel.
According to data from the National Health Service, around 94% of two-year-olds in the UK have been vaccinated against the poliovirus .
(Unioneonline / vl)
