Poliovirus Found in Perth Wastewater

Australia has no polio.

Poliovirus is in Perth's wastewater.

The virus was found in April and is a type of vaccine-derived poliovirus.

The risk to people is very low.

Most children in WA are vaccinated against polio.

What is vaccine-derived poliovirus?

The polio vaccine stops the virus from spreading.

But sometimes the vaccine virus can change and spread.

This changed virus is called vaccine-derived poliovirus.

Australia uses a different kind of polio vaccine.

The vaccine virus was found in Europe but didn't make anyone sick.

The virus in Perth probably came from someone who traveled.

People should get vaccinated against polio.

Perth will now test wastewater more often for poliovirus.

Polio History

Australia has been polio-free since 2000.

Polio cases went down after the vaccine was introduced.

There's still a risk of polio coming from other countries.

The last polio case in Australia was in 2007.

Polio used to be a big problem in Australia.

Polio cases went down after the vaccine.

Polio is a contagious virus.

Polio spreads through infected feces.

Polio can spread through water or food, mostly to unvaccinated children.

Wild poliovirus cases have decreased by 99% since 1988.