Polio is spreading in Britain for the first time since 1984, health officials said yesterday.
Experts identified a small outbreak in London analyzing the wastewater. The NHS will begin a campaign to ensure that children are vaccinated, following the fall of routine childhood beatings, including polio, during the coronavirus pandemic.
The polio virus mainly affects children under the age of five and causes paralysis in about one in 200 cases. The disease was largely eradicated after a vaccine was invented in 1953. Europe was declared polio-free by the WHO in 2002.
The UK Health Agency (UKHSA) found the virus in samples at the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works in East London between February and May. Mutations show that it has evolved in England. Because most of them are infected