Polio vaccine UK: How many Bucks children have been vaccinated

In Bucks 94.4% of children were vaccinated before their first birthday National World reports.

More than three quarters (76%) of local authorities in England, including Bucks, have not hit polio vaccination targets set by WHO.

National World’s analysis is based on the latest vaccination figures published by the NHS.

The analysis comes after the poliovirus was identified by the UK Health Security Agency in sewage samples collected from the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works in London.

Health experts are now urging parents, especially those in London, to get their children vaccinated.

Vaccination rates in the capital remain the lowest in the UK with 86.7% of children vaccinated against polio before their first birthday during the 2020-21 period.

The North West was the second worst performing region with 91.7% vaccinated. The North East is the only English region to be above the WHO target, having vaccinated 95.5% of children.

Overall England’s vaccination rate is at 92.0%.

The vaccine comes in a ‘six in one’ dose which offers protection against polio as well as other diseases such as hepatitis B and tetanus.

A primary course is given over the first few months of a child’s life with boosters required three years after completion of the primary course.

London councils have the lowest vaccination rates in England with the 11 worst performing councils all located in the city.

Hackney and the City of London has the lowest vaccination rates in England with 67.8% of children vaccinated for polio before their first birthday.

South Tyneside has the highest vaccination rate in England with 98.5% covered, followed by Sunderland with 98.2% vaccinated and North Tyneside with 97.5% vaccinated.

Although the risk to public health overall is low, health experts are encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated.

The UK Health Security Agency said that the most likely scenario for the new polio cases was that a vaccinated person entered the country before February 2022 from a country where an oral polio vaccine has been used for supplementary immunisation campaigns.

This is recognised as a ‘vaccine-derived poliovirus’.