A highly contagious and potentially deadly disease that has not been contracted in Australia for 54 years has been detected in sewage in Perth, health officials have confirmed.

Authorities said evidence of a vaccine-derived poliovirus strain was found in a sample of untreated wastewater at the Subiaco wastewater treatment plant in mid-April, News.Az reports, citing Australian media.

It is the first time this specific strain has been detected in Australia, although similar findings were reported in Europe in 2024 and 2025. Those detections did not result in any confirmed polio cases.

The strain identified in Perth is believed to be linked to a person arriving from overseas, according to the Australian Centre for Disease Control.

Vaccine-derived poliovirus is rare but can appear in areas where oral polio vaccines are used. It arises when weakened strains of the virus used in vaccines mutate and are later detected in wastewater through viral shedding.

Poliomyelitis, or polio, is a highly infectious viral disease that can cause paralysis and death, particularly affecting children under the age of five.

Experts note that the virus can spread in two main ways: through naturally circulating wild poliovirus, which still exists in countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, and through mutated vaccine-derived strains found in wastewater.

Australia has a polio vaccine that protects against all three major types of the virus. About 93% of five-year-old children in the country are fully vaccinated, below the global target of 95%.

Australia was declared polio-free in 2000, and the only case detected since then occurred in 2007 when an overseas-born student contracted the disease while travelling abroad.

Health authorities say they are monitoring the situation closely, though the current risk to the public is considered low.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev