Polio: the virus found in wastewater
Europe has not seen a case of polio since 2002. In France, the last case dates back to 1989. On a global scale, cases have also decreased by 99% in recent years, thanks to vaccination (see below).
How then can we explain that we find this virus in our wastewater today? This is the question that the health authoritieson the alert. Last October, Public Health France was already worried about the circulation of the virus in Guyana.
In recent weeks, it has been in Germany, Poland, United Kingdom, in Spain and now in Finland that strains of viruses have been found in wastewater. For the moment, however, mainland France is not affected. French specialists monitor in fact the virus since 2022: “We chose several regions to investigate: Reunion, Mayotte, Guyana, Paris and the Paris region, Marseille, etc., in particular because vaccination coverage there was less optimal. Except in Guyana, nowhere have we found poliovirus derived from vaccine strain in waste water », Explains to our colleagues from Le Parisien, Professor Yazdan Yazdanpanah, infectious disease specialist who oversees the surveillance project. Until when? Mystery.
Polio vaccine: an effective defense, provided boosters are given correctly
There does not exist no treatment to treat and cure polio to date. Only the vaccine can protect. And it is also thanks to the major vaccination campaigns from the end of the 1960s in France that we were able to overcome this disease. More recently, it is the “Global Polio Eradication Initiative” (GPEI) program initiated by the World Health Assembly, the WHO and a number of States and private donors and launched at the end of the 80s that we must drastic decrease cases, all over the planet.
However, this security remains relative, because it depends on the vaccination coverage.
If the serious forms of the disease are according to Public health France “extremely low for people up to date with their vaccinations”, this requires being up to date with reminders, which in this case run throughout our lives.
Chez the adultthe polio vaccine should be given at age 25, then 45, 65, and then every ten years (75 years old, 85 years old, etc.).
