Contagious disease not seen in Australia for over 50 years detected in wastewater

It is the first time this particular strain has been discovered in Australia, after similar detections were reported in Europe in 2024 and 2025.

The detections in Europe have not led to polio cases.

According to the Australian Center for Disease Control, the strain found in Perth is likely linked to a person from overseas.

Vaccine-derived poliovirus, which was found in a wastewater sample, is rare but can be detected in areas where oral polio vaccines are used.

Sanjaya Senanayake, an associate professor of medicine at the Australian National University, said the chances of this developing into a live polio case were slim.

“The good news is that in a highly immunized country like Australia, the likelihood of this vaccine-derived strain of polio virus causing cases of polio is extremely unlikely,” Senanayake said.

“In addition, there have been few polio outbreaks in our region, although they have occurred in the Philippines, Indonesia and PNG.”

The detection has been described as ‘significant’, but officials say it is not evidence of the spread of polio in Australia.

“Wastewater monitoring is intended to give us early warning so health authorities can take precautions,” said Professor Zoe Wainer, director general of the Australian Center for Disease Control.

“Wastewater monitoring is intended to give us early warning so that health authorities can take precautionary measures.

“This is an environmental detection, not a clinical case.

“No cases of polio have been identified and there is no evidence of local transmission.”

Wainer said Australia remains polio-free and the detection in Perth does not affect this status.

The WA government will increase testing at the Subiaco wastewater treatment plant to weekly for six months in response to the detection.

The last case of locally acquired polio was in 1972.

Wild poliovirus type 1 is still circulating in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It has not led to polio cases in Australia.

Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a highly contagious viral infection that can cause paralysis and death.

According to Senanayake it can be contracted in two ways.

“The first is through the ‘natural’ circulating virus. This still occurs in Pakistan and Afghanistan where there have been problems with their vaccination programmes,” she explained.

‘Another way is through infection with mutated forms of viruses from the oral polio vaccine, which are excreted in the feces.

“It is one of these vaccine-derived strains that have been detected in Western Australia wastewater.”

It mainly affects children under the age of five

Australia has a polio vaccine that protects against types 1, 2 and 3.

About 93 percent of five-year-old children in Australia are fully vaccinated against polio, which is below the global target of 95 percent.

Australia was declared polio-free in 2000, and the only case of polio discovered in the country since then was in 2007, when a foreign-born student contracted the disease while abroad.

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