Health Agency looking for polio in wastewater

U.K. launches fight to curb polio outbreak The U.K. is fighting a polio outbreak in London – a disease once thought to be eradicated, but officials say the risk to the public is low.

The Public Health Agency of Canada will begin testing wastewater for the polio virus in several key high-risk communities following reports it was detected in sewage in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

The highly transmissible and sometimes dangerous virus can cause paralysis and death and was a silent spreader in the 1950s.

Since then, a healthy vaccination program has virtually eradicated the disease here in Canada.

Canada has been polio-free since 1994.