The Tower of London is lit up purple with the slogan 'End Polio Now' in 2021. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Image
Children in London were offered booster doses of the polio vaccine Wednesday after British health authorities discovered more virus samples throughout the city.
The big picture: Poliovirus has been recently detected in multiple countries , prompting health officials to act in order to curb the spread.
Driving the news: The U.K. Health Security Agency said it had discovered a positive sample of the poliovirus in eight boroughs throughout London suggesting a level of spread. No specific cases were identified.
- UKHSA said Wednesday that all children in London 1-9 years old should get a polio vaccine booster dose now to stay protected.
- "This will ensure a high level of protection from paralysis and help reduce further spread of the virus," UKHSA said.
Be smart: The risk for paralytic polio across the U.K. remains low due to high vaccination numbers, the UKHSA said.
State of play: The levels of spread in London are a hint "that there is some level of virus transmission in these boroughs which may extend to the adjacent areas," UKSHA said.
- "This suggests that transmission has gone beyond a close network of a few individuals."
Flashback: U.K. health officials discovered polio samples in sewage for the first time in nearly 20 years back at the end of June, Axios previously reported.
- Officials said this meant there was likely a spread of a "vaccine-derived" polio virus between close contacts in London.
- In rare cases, the live polio virus in an oral vaccine can mutate and cause a new outbreak, AP reported at the time.
Meanwhile, New York health officials confirmed the first case of polio in the United States in almost a decade. Officials urged New Yorkers to get vaccinated.
Go deeper ... First U.S. case of polio in decades discovered in New York