To be worried about polio?

[maisieandvicks]

I understand that it is out of our control, but the news about polio returning since 2003, I’m worried for my children.

They’ve had all of their shots bar my pre-schooler who is getting hers next month.

I’m still concerned for my children and furthermore, I’m equally as concerned for children nationwide.

AIBU to be concerned about the arrival of polio?

Keep your trousers on, Opera Station! It's a factual statement which I heard on the BBC news this morning. Immigrants just means people who have come to this country and weren't here and therefore would not have been part of the usual UK vaccination programme.

@Oblomov22 those are the figures given by the BBC they did not specify which population groups are more or less vaccinated however if it correlates with the MMR (highly likely as given in 6 in1 vaccine and 4 in1 and 3in1 bosters ) then the largest population group of unvaccinated children will be the children of middle class parents below 45 NOT immigrants

Whilst they do think it’s spreading person to person, only the unvaccinated are at risk so I am not panicking.

*While no human cases have been reported so far in the UK, Kathleen O’Reilly at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine expects some local transmission has taken place undetected.

“With the sewage samples, the genetic analysis indicates multiple chains of transmission, which suggests some people are spreading it among themselves,” she says. “People who have never been vaccinated have a much higher chance of acquiring the infection and shedding it for a long period of time.”

Are only unvaccinated people at risk?
The risk of serious disease from polio is low in the UK, according to the UKHSA. “Most of the UK population will be protected from vaccination in childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, individuals may remain at risk,” Vanessa Saliba at UKHSA said in a statement.

In the UK, an injected vaccine is given to babies three times before they turn 1. Two more booster jabs are then administered before they turn 15.*

Read more: www.newscientist.com/article/2325891-polio-should-we-be-worried-about-virus-found-in-london-sewage/#ixzz7X7HXskbF”

@Oblomov22 OP is worried about her preschooler who hasn't yet been fully protected. Others are worried about their teens who missed their boosters due to Covid.

It may not be running rife throughout the uk, but it is spreading within a community in London. That's what the article says. It really does spell it out.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61896411.amp

@BloodyHellKen read this article.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61896411.amp

Live virus is often found, as it's excreted by people who've been vaccinated elsewhere. It's not alarming.

This is an evolved form of the virus that has spread in a community, which is why it's being investigated. No need to panic, but yes it does need monitoring.

It is not a problem for the vaccinated.

As a PP says, what it is is a helpful wake up call to support vaccination programmes around the world, and also make sure vax programmes are taken up here. London is 85% which is not good.

Try and get a grip on your anxiety, because you making something that is a problem for others all about you. I know you don't mean to be a dick, so time to snap out of it. (The water has nothing to do with it.). If you have generalised or health anxiety go see your GP .

Ummm I love crystals and hate needles but we are all still vaccinated thank you

This is what I understood.

I don’t think there’s any need to be concerned- and there certainly isn’t when we live in a country that has access to all the necessary vaccines.

This. I know what can happen to a polio victim because my cousin caught polio, before the days of vaccination. She had one leg in calipers throughout her school days and was left with a non-functioning leg that was less than half the size of her other leg. Yet I suspect that anti-vaxxers will still think it could never happen to them so no need to vaccinate their children. Fair doos if you live in Shetland!

Have you read it, @DixonD? Because that isn't what it says. 🤦‍♀️

@picklemewalnuts Okay, fair enough I stand partially corrected as the BBC links says:

"Health officials say this suggests there has been some spread between closely linked individuals in London.
No actual cases of polio have been detected and there have been no reports of rare but serious symptoms in the UK."

So it would appear there has been some spread, but as I said, no actual cases. I'm not sure how you can have spread of a virus, but no actual cases but I'm not going to worry about it.

Wonder what the next 'everybody panic' illness will be? We've had Covid, Monkey Pox and now Polio. Bubonic Plague or maybe Malaria cause by hot summers? 🙄😂

I don't think they are in the minority as much as you think anymore. GPs have been saying for a while now about declining numbers in vaccinations getting done. A lot of people believe this shit. Of course COVID didn't help, but this has been happening since before COVID:

digital.nhs.uk/news/2019/childhood-vaccination-coverage-statistics-2018-19

Awful illness, thing is very few parents of under 18's thankfully do not have any conscious knowledge of how awful it can be and how easily it spreads and widespread it once was, this has made it easy for the anti vaxxers.

I was speaking to a colleague a while ago who is in his early 60's and he said there was alwaysa few polio children (read obviously physically disabled from Polio children) in every class when he andhis siblings were at school.

My Grandad had it, nearly died, sent my great grandma mad, quite literally and she spent time in an asylum afterwards. He came off quite lightly in the end but did have a deformed right foot and a slight limp. He didn't learn to swim until he was in his 50's.

It's not disinformation, it's correct. The evidence suggests it is likely that there is community transmission amongst people closely linked to the person who had the live vaccine and was shedding the virus.

www.newscientist.com/article/2325891-polio-should-we-be-worried-about-virus-found-in-london-sewage/

There is no reason to be concerned if you and your family are vaccinated. I doubt polio is going to become endemic again (widespread and there all the time), although it seems there is a small outbreak in London, which is concerning as there are low levels of vaccination in some parts of the city. I would expect that the outbreak will burn out. Polio has a relatively low herd immunity threshold (about 80%) and most parts of the UK have vaccination levels above the HIT.

@maisieandvicks here is the information from the CDC on the effectiveness of 2 (90%) and 3 doses (99-100%) of the vaccine. Even just one dose gives some protection.

www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/polio/hcp/effectiveness-duration-protection.html

@BloodyHellKen I think it means there are cases, hence the evidence in the sewage, but the infected people haven't been seen and diagnosed by medics.
It's there, they just haven't found it. For most people, it's like a cold. However if the numbers go up then so does the risk of serious cases.

Luckily we have this excellent monitoring System that's alerted us to the issue, and we can encourage people to make sure they are vaccinated and stop it in its tracks.

Anyone who had seen my father’s deformed knee joints would not hesitate to give their children the polio vaccination. Anyone who had seen him lose the ability to walk in old age as a result of polio more than half a century earlier would do the same.

"Health officials say this suggests there has been some spread between closely linked individuals in London.
No actual cases of polio have been detected and there have been no reports of rare but serious symptoms in the UK."

So it would appear there has been some spread, but as I said, no actual cases. I'm not sure how you can have spread of a virus, but no actual cases but I'm not going to worry about it.

It means that it is spreading undetected in the community. There are cases of polio but nobody has been to a GP or hospital and had a diagnosis of polio confirmed by tests. Only a tiny percentage of people infected with polio becaome seriously ill and many people will have very mild symptoms and won't go to a doctor.

But, as I said in my previous post, there is no need to be concerned if you are vaccinatated.

That was for @BloodyHellKen

Thank you @chesirecat99 That's really interesting. I hadn't realised that Polio was a mild illness for most people. I'd just assumed that it made the majority of people who caught it really, really unwell leaving them in calipers/iron lungs etc.

Thank goodness someone else understands!

It's not the shed virus from a vaccine that is abnormal, it's the forms that have mutated in people that show community spread. These have been found, hence the current concern

There's been a few threads, @FuzzyPuffling , where I've started to wonder if I was losing the plot! Everyone repeating ad infinitum stuff that just isn't true! Another sane voice is very welcome! 🤣

The bbc article I read said that it was vaccine related probably due to a live vaccine that a person has shed, and that there are vaccine derived cases of polio in London just these have not been reported. symptoms are less serious than wild type Polio although can still be severe. They are confident it has spread as the genetically linked samples have never been seen before over a period of months.

Most people are asymptomatic with polio; some people have mild symptoms eg nausea, vomiting, headache, fever; and less than 1% of people develop meningitis or paralytic polio (the type of "polio" that everyone thinks of) if the virus enters the central nervous system, @BloodyHellKen

www.cdc.gov/polio/what-is-polio/index.htm

Well it only affects the anti vax gang 🤷‍♂️so not really a concern. We have a free NHS vaccine program, if anyone chooses not to take vaccine, then that's the risk they were prepared to accept

Not really @Whammyyammy . It potentially affects all tax payers and users of health services.

It's also useful to highlight the importance of catching up with missed vaccinations, if they were delayed by Covid.