Vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 was detected in wastewater systems between September and December 2024 in five European countries: Spain, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Finland, potentially putting undervaccinated people at risk, according to a Eurosurveillance report.
Analyses have revealed wide genetic variation among the samples between and within countries, and even within the same sampling sites. This finding suggests that multiple independent importations occurred almost simultaneously from outside European poliovirus surveillance networks.
While the five countries reporting the virus maintain high immunization coverage, with three doses of the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), subnational coverage of the third dose of the polio vaccine in 2023 ranged between 43% and over 99%, according to…