Sewers across Nottingham are going to be checked to see whether poliovirus detected in London has spread across the country. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says polio was found in sewage samples collected from the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works.
As a precaution, the agency is now expanding surveillance to see whether polio has spread to other areas. Nottingham is one of the areas that has been chosen for extra surveillance, with the UKHSA saying that factors including low polio vaccine coverage were used to decide which areas should be searched.
Population groups living in an area with links to overseas countries where wild polio is still found was another one of the factors which led the UKHSA to choose Nottingham. Dr Vanessa Saliba, a consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA, said: "No cases of polio have been reported and for the majority of the population, who are fully vaccinated, the risk is low.
