Wild form of polio found in Hamburg sewage sample, city authority says
The findings came 30 years after the last case of wild polio virus infections were registered in Germany
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German authorities on Thursday identified the northern city of Hamburg as the location where a sewage sample containing the wild form of the polio virus had been found, saying a task force had been established and more samples would be taken.
The nation's main public health body, Robert Koch Institute, or RKI, told Reuters that a wastewater test at an unspecified German location was positive for the wild polio virus, in a setback for efforts to rid the world of the deadly disease.
"The detection of wild poliovirus in a wastewater sample shows that surveillance is working. No clinical cases of polio have been reported to the RKI to date," the German health ministry said on Thursday.
The findings came more than 30 years after the last cases of wild polio virus infections in people were registered in Germany and marked the first wild virus detection from environmental sampling in the country since this type of routine monitoring began in 2021, and the first in Europe since 2010, according to the World Health Organization.
MORE SAMPLES BEING TAKEN
Health authorities in the city of Hamburg, which is also one of Germany's 16 regional states, said in a statement that they had convened an expert task force on infection control and would take more samples while coordinating closely with RKI.
The health ministry said it was being kept informed of developments and emphasised that vaccination was key to protect against polio.
Hamburg added that the positive sample was taken in the week of October 6, reaffirming earlier RKI remarks that the risk to the general public was very low because of high vaccination rates and that no infections had been reported.
"The current detection suggests that the viruses were excreted by at least one person who was in Hamburg at the time the wastewater samples were taken," added RKI on Thursday, adding that the event was unusual, but not totally unexpected.
TWO FORMS OF POLIO
Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is a viral infection that can kill or cause paralysis but which can be prevented by vaccination.
There are two forms of polio circulating globally. Wild polio is rarer and now only found in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The strain detected in Germany is linked to the strain circulating in Afghanistan. It is occasionally detected elsewhere: for example, there were outbreaks in Malawi and Mozambique in 2022.
The other form, vaccine-derived polio, circulates in more countries and stems from rare instances where weakened live viruses used in some places for immunisation mutate and spread.
It has also been detected more recently than wild polio in countries which are otherwise polio-free: several European countries have found it in routine sampling since 2022, including Germany, Spain and Britain.
POLIO FINDING SHOWS NEED FOR VACCINATIONS
Beate Kampmann, scientific director at the Center for Global Health at Germany's largest university hospital, Charité in Berlin, said the finding underscored the importance of vaccination.
“Polio anywhere means a potential risk of polio everywhere," she told Reuters, adding that sustained funding for polio eradication was vital.
