Overview
- Routine wastewater surveillance at Perth’s Subiaco plant detected vaccine‑derived poliovirus type 2 in a mid‑April sample.
- The Australian Centre for Disease Control says this is an environmental finding with no clinical cases or local spread, and Australia’s polio‑free status remains unchanged.
- WA Health has moved to weekly sewage testing at Subiaco for six months, and the national CDC has notified the World Health Organization under its response plan.
- Officials say the strain was most likely shed by a recent overseas traveller, and they urge residents to check vaccinations, with WA childhood coverage around 92 to 93 percent.
- Vaccine‑derived strains can arise where oral polio drops are used and are shed in stool, and similar detections in Europe and in Melbourne in 2024 did not lead to any polio cases.