Polio outbreak in PNG poses major health threat to Queensland

Australia’s closest neighbour is scrambling to control a polio outbreak, with Queensland’s declining vaccination rates leaving the region vulnerable to the once “eradicated” disease.

A health worker administers polio vaccine drops to a child during a polio vaccination door-to-door campaign in 2020. Photo: Arif ALI / AFP

Australia’s closest neighbour is scrambling to control a polio outbreak, with Far North Queensland’s declining vaccination rates leaving the region vulnerable to the once “eradicated” disease.

Papua New Guinea officials have triggered a “national emergency response” after samples of the highly infectious Poliovirus Type 2 were found in two children in the city of Lae on Tuesday May 13.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed the polio outbreak was Papua New Guinea’s first since 2018, which infected 26 children and killed one before it was contained.

Experts warned that Far North Queensland’s proximity to the outbreak posed a risk to the region, with the city of Lae about 500km northeast of Cape York.

University of Queensland public health Associate Professor Linda Selvey said any Australian travelling to PNG while unvaccinated could spread the disease.

“There are more frequented travel routes between the Torres Strait and Papua New Guinea, which could increase that risk to Far North Queensland,” Dr Selvey said.

“But in principle any unvaccinated person can get on a plane, become infected and bring it home, so the risk is nationwide.

“We were very close to eradicating polio, and now we have polio effectively in our neighbourhood.

“We need to take this as a wake-up call, until it is eradicated, we need to make sure everybody is vaccinated.”

About 91 per cent of one-year-olds in Northern Queensland were vaccinated against polio in 2024, a rate which has been steadily declining since 2019.

Papua New Guinea has one of the lowest polio vaccination rates for one year olds in the world at 46 per cent.

Northern Queensland’s diminishing polio vaccination rate was well below the WHO’s recommended 95 per cent to guarantee herd immunity.

“All of us need to be vaccinated against polio,” Dr Selvey said.

“We need to raise that from the 91 per cent to protect all individuals, particularly when we know there’s still polio virus circulating in other places that are close to us.

“But in general 91 per cent immunisation coverage is still sufficient to protect the community against a polio outbreak, but it’s not something that we should take for granted.”

Dr Selvey said Northern Queensland’s declining vaccination rates were part of a “global trend”.

“Basically since the 2020 Covid pandemic we’ve seen this decline,” Dr Selvey said.

“We’re still trying to fully understand it, but when health services were completely focused on managing Covid they didn’t necessarily have the capacity to vaccinate for other diseases.

University of Queensland Honorary Associate Professor Linda Selvey

“In an Australian context, I think a lot of misinformation was spread about the Covid vaccines, which may have influenced people’s decisions to not vaccinate their children.

“It is so important to stress how increasing our polio vaccination rates, and making sure we’re staying on top of our boosters, is absolutely critical to preventing an outbreak in Australia.”

Queensland Health confirmed it was “monitoring” the outbreak.

“Vaccination against polio is the most effective method of preventing the disease and stopping re-entry of the infection to Australia,” a spokesperson for Queensland Health said.

Papua New Guinea’s Health Minister Elias Kapavore announced the government had approved $13m kina ($4.8m AUD) to roll out two rounds of polio vaccines across the country.

“We’ve dealt with this before and know what works,” Mr Kapavore said.

Originally published as Polio outbreak in PNG poses major health threat to Queensland