Cases of polio disease have seen an increase in the major cities of the West, for the first time in decades. The places where the cases are found include the capital of the United Kingdom (UK) London, New York in the United States of America (USA), and Jerusalem in Israel, spurring catch-up vaccination campaigns. 1,081 vaccine-derived polio cases were reported in 2021, three times as many as the previous year. In 2022, 177 cases have been registered to date.
The recently discovered cases of polio are vaccine-derived polio (VDVP), which stems from the use of an oral polio vaccine containing weakened live viruses. Children usually shed viruses in their feces for a few weeks after they are vaccinated, which then spreads in the under-vaccinated communities by mutation. This results back to a harmful version of the virus. VDVP is a known, albeit rare threat in countries like Nigeria, where 415 cases were registered in 2021. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has said that scientists are working to understand the link.
Britain and the USA no longer use live vaccines. But various other nations still use the live vaccine, particularly to stop outbreaks. As per experts, the global spread resulted particularly as people began to travel again after the COVID-19 pandemic. As per the global polio lead at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Derek Ehrhardt; the major driver behind both vaccine-derived and wild polio outbreaks remains under-vaccinated populations. According to the United Nations (UN), vaccine hesitancy was a growing problem before the pandemic. following which the COVID-19 caused the worst disruption to routine immunization in a generation.
According to the latest epidemiological report on polio issued on June 7 by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 49 confirmed cases of VDPV cases have been recorded since the beginning of 2022. According to the data of the WHO, India has not reported a VDPV confirmed case since 2016. However, in June 2022, VDPV was detected in a sewage sample collected from the Metiabruz area in Kolkata. As per the statement given by NS Nigam, state health secretary of West Bengal:
Sewage monitoring goes on throughout the country. This virus was found in a sample in Kolkata. It has been analysed with the help of World Health Organisation (WHO). Most likely it has come from someone’s gut, who is immune deficient and has since multiplied. It is not a case of human-to-human polio transfer
