“NSW Health convened an expert panel last week,which included experts from Victoria,to consider the value and parameters of wastewater surveillance to help detect other infectious diseases,including poliomyelitis,caused by the poliovirus,” a spokesperson said.
“While there is currently no indication of polio infection in NSW,as a precaution NSW Health is developing a wastewater surveillance for poliovirus,building on the success of the SARS CoV-2 wastewater surveillance program.”
It’s been 50 years since Australia’s last locally acquired polio case. WHO declared the disease had been eradicated from Australia in 2000 and childhood immunisations levels are at 95 per cent.
But recent detections of the virus in more than 30 countries have health authorities on alert.
New York instigated astate of emergency this month following the paralysis case and detections of poliovirus in New York City and four surrounding counties.
The circulating virus is “vaccine-derived poliovirus” (cVDPV),which develops when the live,weakened virus used in the oral vaccine circulates through a community with low vaccination rates. Over time,and in very rare instances,the weakened virus mutates into a disease-causing virus. Vaccine-derived poliovirus is circulating in 27 African countries,along with Yemen,the US,the UK,Israel and Ukraine.