Before the introduction of the polio vaccine, epidemics were common in Britain, with up to 8,000 cases of paralysis reported every year.
Routine surveillance of sewage in the country picks up poliovirus once or twice a year, but between February and May, officials identified the virus in several samples collected in London, according to Dr.Shahin Huseynov, technical officer for the World Health Organization’s vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization program in Europe.
In Britain, immunization for polio is carried out with an injected inactivated poliovirus, which cannot be shed through feces.But some countries of the world rely on an oral polio vaccine that contains a live, weakened version of the virus.
The virus in the collected samples came from a type of oral polio vaccine that is used to contain outbreaks, according to Dr.