“Poliovirus Alert: Essential Travel Advisory for 39 Countries – Vaccinate Before You Go!”

In 2024, numerous health organizations issued travel warnings related to the identification of polioviruses. Although polio can be prevented through vaccination, virus identifications in wastewater and the environment have persisted into 2025.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has verified that several nations are reporting instances of wild polio, circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2, and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1.

As of January 14, 2025, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reissued its Level 2 – Exercise Enhanced Precautions, Travel Health Advisory, emphasizing 39 countries with poliovirus detections.

The United Kingdom was not listed by the CDC; however, it identified poliovirus samples from East Worthing Sewage Treatment Works, Leeds Knostrop Sewage Treatment Works, and the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works in late 2024.

Earlier, the World Health Organization declared in December 2024 that the transmission of the poliovirus still constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

To mitigate poliovirus spread, the CDC advised, ‘Before traveling to any listed location, adults who have previously completed the entire, standard polio vaccine series might receive a one-time, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine.’

Most travel clinics and pharmacies in the U.S. provide polio vaccines.