Polio in Sudan

10 Jan 2023

On 22 December 2022, the World Health Organization reported one new case of polio in West Darfur, Sudan. The detected virus appears unrelated to a previous outbreak in Sudan in 2020, which was successfully closed in September 2022.

Advice for Travellers

Polio is a serious infection caused by the poliovirus. The virus lives in an infected person’s throat and intestines. It enters the body through the mouth and spreads through:

• contact with the poo from an infected person
• droplets from a cough or sneeze from an infected person, this is less common

You can become infected if you:

• have poo on your hands and you touch your mouth
• put objects in your mouth that are contaminated with the infected poo
• consume food and water that has been contaminated with the poo from an infected person

You should consider having a booster dose of polio vaccine if it has been more than 10 years since your last booster and you are travelling to a country where polio remains a problem.

For further information see the fitfortravel Sudan country page and Poliomyelitis page.