Finland joins the achievement of communications that have been issued since September in different territories of the European Union regarding the detection of polyviruses in wastewater. The Nordic country reported this positive detection earlier this month, the last in the line of detections that Spain began – in the Barcelona metropolitan area -, which was followed by Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom. Specifically, poliovirus type 2 derived from the oral vaccine (cVDPV2) has been located.
The polyvirus is the causative agent of poliomyelitis, called polio for short, an infectious disease that can cause muscle atrophy and paralysis (generally, in 1% of cases). It is also called “infantile paralysis” because the majority of people who contract it are children.
Despite the detection of the virus in wastewater, hTo date, no recent human cases of polio have been reported in the European Union, so the area would remain, in principle, polio-free. The last case occurred in 2002, due, among other things, to the fact that anti-polio vaccines are used in all countries. However, the detection of derivatives of the oral vaccine could mean that the attenuated viruses that make it up could mutate over time and cause serious cases.
Recommendations
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has issued a statement recommending, as a preventive measure while genetic research is carried out, maintaining high vaccination coverage in the general population and increasing vaccination acceptance in specific EU populations that have lower vaccination rates.
“Although vaccination programs exist, as long as there are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated population groups in European countries and polio is not eradicated globally, the risk of the virus being reintroduced into Europe will persist,” they emphasize. from the ECDC. Sabrina Bacci, head of the Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Immunization Section at the ECDC, said that it is estimated that around 2.4 million children in the EU may not have been vaccinated against polio on time between 2012 and 2021.
They recall that special attention should be paid to the protection of this age group through the timely administration of anti-polio vaccines included in the systematic childhood vaccination programs in all countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area.
Polio, despite its absence in the area since the early 2000s, has not been eradicated globally, so there remains a risk of the virus being reintroduced to Europe. Two countries neighboring the European territory (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine) remain at high risk of a sustained polio outbreak and six are at intermediate risk. This is mainly due to poor performance of the vaccination program and low population immunity in some of these areas, according to the Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication (RCC) report published in November 2023. .
European countries should, according to the ECDC, review their data on polio vaccination coverage and ensure that there are no gaps in immunity in the population, in addition to ensuring that there is the capacity to identify the circulation of the virus through surveillance systems. Sensitive and effective surveillance (such as surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis). Additionally, children and people of all ages entering the EU should have their vaccination status assessed and offered vaccination if they are found to be under-immunized.
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