Thousands of children across England – and particularly in London – are not fully protected against polio, data shows. Official figures analysed by the PA news agency show that of the 693,928 children in England aged five in 2020/21, some 592,191 (85.3%) had received their polio booster by their fifth birthday while 101,737 (14.7%) had not.
Around a third of all these unprotected five-year-olds were in London (34,105). The regional percentages of five-year-olds who had not received their booster ranged from 8.4% in north-east England to 27.4% in London.
In south-west England, 10.3% did not get their booster (usually given at the age of three years and four months), and 10.4% of those in eastern England did not. The figures were 10.8% in Yorkshire and the Humber, 11.4% in the South East and 12.3% in the East Midlands.
Some 13.8% in north-west England also did not get a booster, alongside 15.1% in the West Midlands, according to the data from NHS Digital and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
