Polio vaccination rates fell in Europe and Central Asia last year. Here's why the WHO is concerned

Polio vaccination rates fell across Europe and Central Asia last year, leaving about 450,000 babies vulnerable to the highly contagious disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Poliomyelitis, known also as polio, can invade the nervous system, causing paralysis in severe cases. While it once paralysed 350,000 children per year globally, massive vaccination campaigns have nearly wiped it off the planet.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recommends that at least 90 per cent of people are vaccinated against poliovirus to protect against its spread.

Europe is still there. In 2024, the polio vaccination rate was 93 per cent in the WHO’s European region, which includes 53 countries in Europe and Central Asia. But that is the lowest level since 2017, amid a concerning decline in routine childhood immunisations more broadly.

Coverage is also much lower in some countries, such as Romania, where 79 per cent of people had the third dose of the poliovirus vaccine last year.

The region has not seen a regular spread of the virus since it was declared polio-free in 2002 – but the WHO said efforts to eliminate polio globally and maintain Europe’s polio-free status “continue to be challenged”.

Poliovirus has been detected in the sewageof six European region countries since last autumn, most recently in Germany in September 2025. The other countries include Finland, Israel, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom

These countries’ vaccination rates are high enough that no actual polio cases or community spread have been detected. But public health experts say that when pockets of people are unvaccinated, it creates opportunities for the virus to take hold.

“Gaps in immunisation coverage leave children vulnerable and present a health security risk to our region and beyond,” Ihor Perehinets, who leads health security and regional emergency work for WHO’s Europe office, said in a statement.

According to ECDC estimates, about 600,000 one- and two-year-olds may not have received a full course of polio vaccination in 2022 and 2023.

Poliovirus is still present in other countries – notably Afghanistan and Pakistan, the only two countries where it is still endemic – so there is always a risk that cases could be imported to Europe and begin to spread among unvaccinated people.

WHO officials called for stronger polio surveillance worldwide, as well as reinvigorated efforts to boost immunisations and respond quickly to the virus when it is detected.

“We must not return to a time when polio regularly threatened lives and overwhelmed health systems,” Perehinets said.