Virus detection
Polio pathogen discovered in Hamburg wastewater
11/14/2025 – 02:09Reading time: 2 minutes
The pathogen is thought to have been eradicated in the country: Now wild poliovirus has been detected in Hamburg for the first time in decades. Its origins are mysterious.
The surprising discovery caused a stir in Hamburg: During routine checks, experts from the Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Environmental Agency discovered wild poliovirus type 1 in wastewater samples from the Hanseatic city. This is the first record of this species in Germany for more than three decades.
The affected samples are from the first half of October. Because this was wastewater collected from Hamburg and the surrounding area, authorities were unable to determine exactly where the virus got into the wastewater. It is also currently impossible to say whether one person or several people have contracted the disease.
Despite the unusual evidence, Hamburg health authorities declared everything safe. Because of the high rate of vaccination in the community and because this discovery only occurred once, experts classified the risk as very low. Herd immunity in Hamburg and the rest of Germany effectively protects people from the spread of the disease.
This pathogen is usually only found in Afghanistan and Pakistan worldwide. In Germany, the last bout of polio caused by a wild virus was recorded in 1990. Authorities recorded two more cases of those infected abroad in 1992.
The disease poliomyelitis – known as polio – primarily affects children and, according to the Federal Institute of Public Health, can cause permanent paralysis and even death. Sick people also often suffer from fever, nausea, sore throat, stomach ache, muscle aches and headaches. Meningitis is also a possible consequence.
Apart from the current discovery in Hamburg, vaccine-derived polio virus type 2 has been found in wastewater in various German cities since late 2024. According to Hamburg authorities, this virus has nothing to do with the wild virus that has now been detected, as they are two different types of virus. However, both variants can cause polio in people who have not or have not received adequate vaccination.
