British Health: The polio virus is spreading in London, and an immunization campaign is launched

The British authorities announced the launch of a vaccination campaign to prevent polio, after the virus spread in the capital for the first time since the eighties. Health authorities will invite children aged one to nine years to receive a booster dose of the vaccine.

Britain is launching a campaign to give a booster dose of polio vaccines in London to those under the age of ten, after it confirmed that the virus was spreading in the capital for the first time since the eighties.

The Health Security Agency detected 116 polioviruses in 19 sanitation samples this year in London, after initially issuing a warning that it had detected the virus in June. The agency said that the levels of the virus that were monitored and the genetic diversity indicated that it was spreading in a number of London neighborhoods.

No cases have been detected so far, but in an effort to anticipate any possible outbreak, the authorities will be calling on children aged one to nine years to receive a booster dose of the vaccine while already announcing a campaign to track children more widely.

Immunization rates vary across London but remain on average below the 95 percent coverage rate the World Health Organization suggests is needed to keep polio under control.