Poliovirus detected in Germany’s sewage: Here’s why officials are concerned despite ‘low’ risks

Health authorities in Germany have detected traces of the poliovirus in Hamburg’s sewage, prompting calls for stronger disease-tracking and vaccination efforts.

Germany has not reported any actual cases of poliomyelitis, or polio, a highly contagious disease that primarily affects young children and can invade the nervous system, sometimes causing paralysis.

The poliovirus found in Germany’s wastewater is genetically similar to a strain last identified in August in Afghanistan, one of only two countries where polio remains endemic.

The detection in Germany is “unusual, but not unexpected,” according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Germany’s last known local polio case occurred in 1990, and Europe was declared polio-free in 2002. Still, officials warn that cases can still be imported into Europe and potentially spread among unvaccinated people.

The recent detection “underscores the reality that until polio is eradicated everywhere, all countries remain at risk of importation of the virus and potential re-infection,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Poliovirus can be found in sewage when people shed the virus in their stool. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are sick – it can also be because they were immunised with the oral polio vaccine, which contains a weakened but live virus.

Last year, after health authorities detected poliovirus in sewage in Germany, Poland, and Spain, they urged countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination efforts to ensure their populations were well-protected against polio.

Across the European Union last year, vaccination rates among one-year-olds ranged from 79 per cent in Romania to 99 per cent in Hungary and Luxembourg, WHO data shows.

Public health experts have warned that gaps may exist at the local level that could allow the virus to spread unchecked.

Even so, the ECDC said the overall risk to Europeans from the poliovirus detected in Germany is “very low”.