Polio booster - is it necessary?

[duvets3]

My DS is 2.5 years old. He is up to date with all his routine vaccines, but we’ve now been offered a polio booster in addition to everything else. It’s because we live in London apparently and polio is on the rise here - or at least it was. I haven’t seen anything in the news about it for a while.

Is it really necessary for him to have this extra jab on top of everything else?

Surely the experience of the last few years has taught you that not all vaccines confer lifelong 100% protection?! See also everyone being advised to get a tetanus booster after an animal bite, regardless of whether or not they've had all their regular doses. Clearly the standard protocol is considered sufficient for the normal risk level in this country but the risk level has now increased and the NHS definitely wouldn't be spending resources on this if it wasn't justified.

Yes my child has had the booster
i wont give her the covid vaccine because covid isn’t particularly dangerous for her
Polio is very dangerous for children and I would be a fool not to give it.
as for “another needle”- it’s a tiny scratch he won’t remember!

I’m aware that it’s a horrible disease. I just thought the three jabs he’s had already would be adequate protection I s’pose.

If you’d ever seen polio, you wouldn’t question.

Good lord OP, do you think they offer them for the random fun of it?

I’m sure side effects are possible (I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a vaccine where they weren’t?) but DD (who is 2) had her booster last month and it was one of the quick, smaller dose ones rather than the big MMR style ones so it was so quick she barely noticed and there were no noticeable side effects afterwards.

So by the age of 3.5 he’ll have been jabbed against polio five times!

I’ll get him booked in for the booster anyhow.

My 6yo had a sore arm and felt a bit sub par the next day, but one dose of ibuprofen sorted her out. 9yo was fine apart from a sore arm.
I totally get what you're saying, especially for a young child who's had the last dose relatively recently, but for 3 seconds of pain and potentially 12 hours of feeling slightly rough vs even a small risk of polio, I felt like the belt and braces approach is worth it.

3 jabs gives 99-100% protection, which means upto 1% of fully vaxed children are not fully protected, which for something as devastating as polio is quite high and you don’t know where your son lies on that spectrum. That means a 1 form entry primary school that’s 2 susceptible fully vaccinated kids. When you factor in kids that haven’t had full schedule, numbers rise.

Polio is horrific and kids the most susceptible. Advice is from paediatric infectious disease and public health experts with no vested interests in a vaccine that’s nearly 70 years old, and when you consider the fatal or life changing outcomes of polio is not worth the risk.

Yes a baby will receive polio vaccine as part of the 6 in one but they won't be fully vaccinated until they have had a preschool booster and another given in teenage years. This is fine when polio is not circulating but now we know it is, children who aren't fully vaccinated are vulnerable and need whatever protection we can offer. So please get the extra booster.

It is not just live vaccine shedding that's been found in London wastewater. They can tell from the virus samples that polio is spreading person to person. This is also happening in New York, where a young person has been paralysed by polio.

We were so close to eradicating polio worldwide. It makes me weep

Absolutely this 👆

I'm aghast at why people would even question the benefits of an additional booster vaccine. There is a rise in polio because there is a rise in people who have a lack of critical thinking abilities and believe the anti-vaxx shite that gets pedalled by morons.
If he's had it already then where's the harm in topping up his immunity?

My dad’s brother died of polio. He was 3.

Why would you even hesitate?

@pinheadlarry

Because they make the money back tenfold on each vaccine

As the polio vaccine has been around for many decades it's unit price is out 10p.

If the NHS get 10x that back then the remaining 90p can go towards the cost of the health professional giving the jab, the cost of the building, the OR campaign to raise awareness etc.

'Trauma'?!?

2 things:

Firstly I am old enough to have met people who were permanently disabled by polio. Thankfully because of the vaccine it is rare in Europe nowadays .

Secondly the vaccine is v v safe. Years ago I was treated by a well known alternative practitioner who was quite sceptical of vaccines, but even he thought that one was brilliant.

Just do it. Is it a jab now? I thought it was a drop on the tongue (sugar lump in my day)

I'm not a polio expert. You are not a polio expert. Neither of us have the PhD and years of expertise to know whether the booster is "really needed".

However, the public health people who DO have all the expertise and PhDs and knowledge are saying it is needed. Get the booster.

Out of interest, does the polio they found in the sewage definitely mean polio is circulating again? Or could it have come from children who’ve been given a “live” vaccine which I think some countries still use? I read something to that effect on another thread but I have probably misunderstood.

Also, is it on the rise again because some kids have had NO vaccines?

If you read the detailed link I posted above, it answers all those questions. It’s come from someone given the live vaccine abroad, but has evolved. They can tell it’s circulating in the community (presumably asymptomatically).

I’m sure you could find the answers to this by typing the same question into Google rather than Mumsnet.

For myself, I trust that epidemiologists and public health specialists do the thinking and research so that I don’t have to, not being an expert in the field. If they’ve decided this is a necessary and proportionate response to the risks, why would I want to argue otherwise?

Thank you Booked.

Tell us after he contracts polio seriously, why do you think they're calling him for vaccination?

I was at school with a polio survivor. Both her legs were paralysed (she wore callipers and used a wheelchair/crutches). My mother remembers an outbreak in the 1940s when friends died/were left weakened. It really isn’t something you want your child getting.

I read that they don’t know whether the polio that’s been found in sewerage is live vaccine or from those coming from countries where polio is still around, such as Afghanistan where there have been issues with vaccination programmes.

Glad you've booked it OP and hopefully any other doubting mums on this page will see sense and do the same.

If you had seen what polio does to those who survive, and the number of people who died from it, you wouldn't even be asking the question.