Team Lopez - Julia Lopez MP welcomes the announcement that an emergency Polio booster vaccination programme will be rolled out across London.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has declared a national enhanced polio incident response and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) have advised that as well as the ongoing catch-up offer, a supplementary Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) campaign should be implemented for children aged 1 to 9 years in London, including those with a complete course of polio vaccination
All London systems will work with their local partners to support delivery as soon as possible, starting on Monday 15th August, with all 1-9 year olds having been offered a vaccination by 26th September.
By offering the vaccine to all children aged 1 to 9, it will ensure a high level of protection from paralysis and help reduce further spread of the virus. Nationally the overall risk of paralytic polio is considered low because most people are protected from this by vaccination.
The NHS in London will contact parents when it's their child’s turn to come forward for a booster or catch-up polio dose - parents should take up the offer as soon as possible.
Plans are underway on where and how this programme will be rolled out. More information will be published in due course.
To support uptake, a focused campaign will start now in the London boroughs where poliovirus has been detected to date. This includes Barnet, Brent, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest as a priority, with a view to rapidly extending to all London boroughs. Rollout beyond these initial boroughs will begin within a week of the start of the programme.
