Open Outbreak

Should I be worried about Poliovirus (wild and vaccine-derived)?

Updated · Graded from official assessments; nothing here is medical advice.

Poliovirus (wild and vaccine-derived) · Attention: elevated

If you are in the affected area high
WHO says the international spread of poliovirus remains under the long-running polio PHEIC, and in a recent outbreak notice it assessed the risk in the affected country as high in Papua New Guinea on 20 May 2025. According to WHO
If you are elsewhere in the same country or region high
WHO’s current polio position is that international spread remains a public health emergency, and its recent outbreak notices assess risk in the affected country as high, including Papua New Guinea on 20 May 2025. According to WHO
If you are travelling there soon high
WHO says international spread of poliovirus remains under the polio PHEIC, and it assessed the risk for travellers as high in its Papua New Guinea cVDPV2 notice on 20 May 2025. According to WHO
If you are elsewhere in the world high
WHO’s polio topic page says the international spread of poliovirus remains a global emergency, and WHO assessed the risk elsewhere as high in its Papua New Guinea notice on 20 May 2025. According to WHO

What is happening

Polio remains a worldwide watch because WHO says the international spread of poliovirus is still under the Public Health Emergency of International Concern first declared on 5 May 2014 and extended again in 2025. WHO’s polio page says wild poliovirus type 1 remains endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Recent WHO notices in this material describe cVDPV1 environmental transmission in Israel in 2025, with no paralytic cases reported there, and cVDPV2 detection in Papua New Guinea in 2025. No official case total is given here; the figures attached to this page list media 46 confirmed cases, unverified, and the recent Gaza media report carried 0 confirmed cases in its ingested metadata. Officials are responding with vaccination campaigns, acute flaccid paralysis and environmental surveillance, laboratory sequencing, active case finding, and catch-up vaccination in under-immunized groups.

Who is affected and how it spreads

Polio is a viral infection that spreads mainly through contact with infected stool, and sometimes through contaminated food or water. Most infected people have no symptoms, which is why spread can be hard to spot. In a small minority, the virus reaches the nervous system and causes weakness or paralysis that can be permanent. Current concern includes both wild poliovirus type 1 and circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses, and vaccination is the main protection.

What we are watching

Updates

Sources