§ Mrs. BrowningTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library a risk analysis of infants vaccinated against polio who(a) do not travel outside the UK and (b) travel outside the UK. [51604]
§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 22 April 2002]: I am advised that children who are vaccinated against polio and who do not travel outside of the United Kingdom face extremely small risks from polio, and would only be vulnerable if the vaccine had failed to protect and they were exposed to wild polio virus from a recently arrived infected visitor from an endemic country. Children who have been immunised against polio and who travel abroad are at similarly low risk if visiting another non-endemic country. The risks will increase progressively according to the extent of endemicity of countries visited.
Experts advise that the risk of vaccine associated polio is approximately one in every million doses administered and this will not be affected by travel.