CDC Issues Travel Advisory for 32 Countries, Including Several in Europe, Over Spread of Paralyzing Disease

The CDC is encouraging Americans traveling abroad to make sure they are up to date on their polio vaccines

A travel alert has been issued warning Americans to take precautions against polio, which is spreading in Europe and elsewhere across the globe.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control issued a level 2 alert, cautioning travelers to “practice enhanced precautions” before visiting 32 countries. The agency is advising people to make sure they’re up to date on their polio vaccines, adding that people who plan to travel to the listed countries are eligible for a single-dose booster of the vaccine.

The countries include European travel destinations like Spain, Finland, Germany, and Poland — as well as the U.K.

St. Paul's cathedral and street with old historic building in City of London

St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.Getty

As the CDC explains, polio‚ which is caused by the extremely contagious poliovirus, is “a crippling and potentially deadly disease that affects the nervous system.” It lives in the feces of an infected person, but can also be spread via eating or drinking food that’s been contaminated.

Most people who contract polio do not exhibit symptoms — or if they do, they experience flu-like fevers, tiredness, nausea, headache, nasal congestion, and sore throat.

In some cases, polio can lead to paralysis, as it did with U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who needed a wheelchair after he contracted the disease.

The CDC says that “vaccination has helped eliminate wild poliovirus in the United States.” It’s a four-dose series of shots given throughout childhood.

Poliomyelitis virus vaccine

Stock image of the polio vaccine.

However, vaccination hesitancy is on the rise, contirbuting to the spread of these once-nearly eliminated diseases. Health and Human Services head Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s lawyer and ally Aaron Siri petitioned the FDA in 2022 to revoke approval of the polio vaccine, which eradicated the disease in the US. And in January, Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who leads the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, suggested vaccinations against polio and other diseases should be optional. “If there is no choice, then informed consent is an illusion,”  Dr. Milhoan told The New York Times. “Without consent it is medical battery.”

The full list of countries where polio is spreading includes Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Finland, Gaza, Germany, Ghana, Guinea, Israel, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Spain, Sudan, Tanzania, United Kingdom, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.