Children were made eligible for booster doses after health authorities reported finding evidence the virus has spread in multiple areas of London but found no cases of the paralytic disease in people.
A health worker gives a polio vaccine to a child in Karachi, Pakistan, on May 23. British health authorities on Wednesday said they will offer a polio booster dose to children aged 1 to 9 in London, after finding evidence the virus has been spreading in multiple regions of the capital.
The agency said it had not located anyone infected with the virus and that the risk to the wider population was low. The decision to offer young children boosters was a precaution, it said. Most people across Britain are vaccinated against polio in childhood. According to the World Health Organization, only one in 200 polio infections leads to paralysis; most people don't show any symptoms.
"Further investigation is needed to fully understand how they are connected, but it does illustrate that this virus has the potential to cause disease," O'Reilly said in a statement.
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