All children aged 1-9 in London to be offered a dose of polio vaccine

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has announced that all children aged one to nine in London are offered a polio booster vaccine.

Parents in North West London are advised not to contact their GP, but to wait for NHS to contact them when it's their child’s turn to come forward for a booster or catch-up polio dose.

When a child is invited for the vaccine It’s important that even if they are up-to-date with vaccinations, parents should accept the vaccine to further strengthen the child's protection against the poliovirus.

The North West London ICS writes: "Boosters for children 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 programme will start with the areas affected, where the poliovirus has been detected and vaccination rates are low. This will be followed by rapid rollout across all NW London boroughs."

For more information about Polio, please visit the NHS website.