Poliovaccination

Prevention

Vaccination

For travellers to Asia or Africa from the age of sixteen years who have completed their primary vaccination against poliomyelitis, a single booster vaccination for polio is recommended. 

For longterm travellers who travel more than 4 weeks, vaccination is mandatory for some countries, according to the temporary recommendations under the International Health Regulation issued by WHO to reduce international spread of poliomyelitis virus. 

Vaccination is mandatory for people of all ages:

• travelling from countries with wild polio virus 1 (WPV1), circulating vaccine derived polio virus 1 or 3 (cVDPV1 or cVDPV3) 
• with risk of international spread 
• after a journey of four weeks or longer. 

This polio vaccine has to be given between four weeks and twelve months before leaving  one of these countries and has to be documented in the international certificate of vaccination and prophylaxis. For travellers, this means that vaccination is usually given before their journey.
An overview of these countries is available on Wanda and the vaccination recommendations are mentioned in the country information under the topic “vaccinations: polio”. 

For longterm travellers or going to countries with cVDPV2 with risk of international spread, vaccination is not mandatory. The list of countries is adapted a few times a year by WHO.