The risk of a major polio outbreak in the UK is now at its highest in ‘more than a generation’, leading pandemic doctors have warned.
Falling vaccination rates and the government’s decision to end funding for a global eradication programme means outbreaks will increase here and abroad, they add.
The polio virus, which largely affects children, is extremely infectious and has been detected several times in UK sewers in recent years, including in London in March.
Dr Hareen De Silva and Dr Helen Wall, from the ‘Healthy World, Secure Britain’ campaign group, say this should act as a ‘wake up call’.
Vaccine hesitancy and complacency have led to one in five children missing their pre-school booster for polio, leaving them at risk.
The virus often causes mild-flu like symptoms but can lead to more serious issues that affect the brain and nerves, such as paralysis.
This can happen over hours or days and usually affects the legs. If the paralysis affects the muscles used for breathing, it can be life-threatening.
Dr De Silva, a GP who was awarded the British Empire Medal for his work on Covid and King’s Humanitarian Medal on polio vaccinations in Gaza, said: ‘My recent work in Gaza, where I was responding to the first polio case there in 25 years, showed me first-hand how the disease can come back.
Dr Hareen De Silva, from the ‘Healthy World, Secure Britain’ campaign group, say recent discoveries of the polio virus in the UK should act as a ‘wake up call’.
‘With vaccine rates down and recent aid cuts, the risk to this country is the highest in more than a generation.
‘Ending funding for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is shortsighted, especially as we have found traces of the disease re-emerging in our sewers.
‘As long as polio exists anywhere, it remains a threat everywhere.’
According to the NHS, the UK saw its last case of polio in 1984 after which children have been protected through successful mass vaccination efforts.
The UK was declared polio free in 2003.
But doctors fear complacency could lead to a resurgence amid funding cuts and falling vaccination rates, which have dropped from the critical ’herd immunity’ rate of 95 per cent to 92 per cent.
Dr De Silva added: ‘The UK Government’s decision to cut international funding will impact global vaccination programmes significantly.
‘It could undo generations of work and let the opportunity to end this disease altogether slip away.
Polio patient in an iron lung at the Scots Mission Hospital in Tiberias, Palestine in March 1940. When polio weakened muscles used in breathing, an iron lung assisted respiration.
‘With vaccination uptake reducing in the UK, there is always a potential risk of polio re-emergence at home.’
The last major outbreak of the waterborne disease in the UK was in the 1970s and the last case caught in this country in 1984. The last imported case was in 1993.
High profile sufferers include the English food writer and Bake-Off star Mary Berry, 91, Hollywood actor Mia Farrow, 81, and the late singer-songwriter, Ian Dury.
As of autumn 2025, almost one in five children starting school in England had missed their 4-in-1 pre-school booster for polio, meaning the UK has fallen below the World Health Organisation’s 95 per cent target for maintaining community protection.
The UK Government announced in March that it is ending funding for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) and cutting funding for other organisations providing lifesaving vaccines globally like Gavi, the World Health Organisation and the Global Fund.
A child in Gaza was paralysed by polio in 2024 for the first time in two decades – and in 2022 an unvaccinated man in the United States was also paralysed by the virus.
Dr Helen Wall, a GP and TV health doctor who also rose to prominence during the Covid pandemic, said: ‘Aid cuts, vaccine hesitancy and just common complacency are creating a perfect storm that have increased risks to the highest in a generation.
‘These recent detections in our sewers show that the disease is still circulating and any reduction in the fight against its total eradication adds to the risks it could come back – not just around the world but in this country as well.’
TV doctor Dr Helen Wall said aid cuts, vaccine hesitancy and complacency are creating a ‘perfect storm’.
Healthy World, Secure Britain – a coalition of health workers who fear that aid cuts could lead to increased number of imported diseases – says stopping diseases everywhere will strengthen and protect Britain’s NHS by reducing the risk of outbreaks in the UK.
The Government has been approached for comment.
