All children aged 1 to 9 years in London are being offered a dose of polio vaccine.
For some children this may be an extra dose of polio vaccine, on top of their routine vaccinations. In other children it may just bring them up to date.
Polio is an infection caused by a virus that attacks the nervous system – it can cause permanent paralysis of muscles. Before the polio vaccine was introduced, there were as many as 8,000 cases of polio in the UK in epidemic years.
Because of the success of the polio vaccination programme, there have been no cases of natural polio infection in the UK for over 30 years (the last case was in 1984) and polio was eradicated from the whole of Europe in 2003.
Here are five facts parents should know about polio:
- There are signs the virus may be spreading in London and the number of children vaccinated in London is lower than it should be.
- Boosting immunity in children should help protect them and reduce the risk of the virus continuing to spread.
- All polio vaccines are already used in the routine programme and safely given to millions of children each year.
- The combined vaccines contain dead (inactivated) polio virus, which cannot cause polio.
- Getting vaccinated is the best way to protect your child and there are minimal side effects following vaccination. Your child may experience some redness, swelling or tenderness in the arm where they had the injection, but this will usually disappear in a few days.
You can book an appointment at some vaccination sites; others can do walk-in appointments without booking.
For children aged 1 to 4 years old, contact your GP surgery to book a vaccination appointment. Some vaccination sites can also vaccinate children aged 1 to 4 years old.
For children aged 5 to 9 years old, they can walk in to polio vaccination sites across South West London.