Exclusive-Wild form of polio found in German sewage sample, health institute says

By Jennifer Rigby and Ludwig Burger

LONDON (Reuters) -The wild form of virus behind polio has been detected in wastewater sampling in Germany, the nation's main public health body told Reuters on Wednesday, in a setback for efforts to rid the world of the deadly disease.

The findings come more than 30 years after the last cases of wild polio virus infections in people were registered in Germany and mark the first wild virus detection from environmental sampling in the country since this type of routine monitoring began in 2021.

"Wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) has been detected in a sewage sample in Germany," the Robert Koch Institute said in a statement to Reuters, adding that no infections in people had been reported.

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 only present in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The other form, vaccine-derived, circulates in more countries and stems from rare instances where weakened live viruses used for immunisation mutate and spread.

The Robert Koch Institute added on Wednesday that the risk to Germany's general population from either form of poliovirus is "very low" due to high vaccination coverage and because cases of virus detection in wastewater are only "isolated".

Testing sewage water for the virus is a technique used globally to track the spread of polio.

The Robert Koch Institute has reported findings of vaccine-derived poliovirus from several wastewater samples across Germany since the end of 2024.

The last case of polio infection acquired in Germany through wild viruses was reported in 1990. The most recent imported cases, brought in from Egypt and India, were registered in 1992.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; additional reporting by Patricia Weiss in FrankfurtEditing by Gareth Jones and Mark Heinrich)