Why has wild polio been found in Germany and what does it mean?

November 13, 2025 9:07 PM

Why has wild polio been found in Germany and what does it mean?

Germany has found the wild polio virus in a sewage sample in Hamburg, the first such detection in Europe since 2010. WHAT IS POLIO? Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease that terrified parents worldwide for much of the first half of the 20th century. Affecting mainly children under five, it is often asymptomatic but can also cause symptoms like fever and vomiting. Around one in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, and among those patients, up to 10% die. There is...

UN to vaccinate Gaza’s children against polio during pauses in fighting

August 31, 2024 9:42 AM

UN to vaccinate Gaza’s children against polio during pauses in fighting

The United Nations will start vaccinating some 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip against polio on Sunday, a campaign that relies on daily eight-hour pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in specific areas of the besieged enclave. The complex campaign, which is targeting children under age 10, follows confirmation last week that a baby was paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years. WHO officials say at least 90% of the children need t...

Polio cases ‘very likely’ in Gaza population, WHO says

July 31, 2024 3:33 PM

Polio cases ‘very likely’ in Gaza population, WHO says

It is very likely that polio has infected people in the Gaza Strip, in what would be a setback for global efforts to eradicate the disease, a World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday. Gaza's health ministry declared a polio epidemic across the Palestinian enclave late on Monday after samples of the virus were found in sewage. It has not announced any human cases. According to the WHO, polio is now endemic only in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but more than 30 countries are still list...