> Is it working if it's not actually doing anything?
Yes, because unvaccinated humans lack immunity. A single imported case could spread rapidly through an unvaccinated population.
I found this informative ECDC page: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/poliomyelitis/facts
Quotes:
- Poliovirus can survive at room temperature for a few weeks in soil, sewage, and water
- It's highly infectious with sero-conversion rates of 90–100% among household contacts
- Factors like poor sanitation, high population density, and low vaccine coverage all fuel transmission
Yellow fever needs mosquitoes to spread and has animal reservoirs. Once you reduce/eliminate transmission in those reservoirs, the virus basically can't circulate even with low human vaccination coverage. For polio, humans are the only reservoir, and it spreads directly person-to-person. That's why you can't just rely on vaccinating travelers.
Plus, vaccine-derived polio (cVDPV) is actively circulating in Nigeria and Chad right now. In 2025 alone Nigeria reported 62 cVDPV2 cases. This happens when vaccination coverage drops low enough for the weakened vaccine virus itself to mutate and spread. So it's not just reintroduction risk, the virus is actively evolving in low-coverage areas.
If a huge cluster were to emerge, you'd need rapid mass vaccination campaigns to stop it. That's way riskier than maintaining routine childhood vaccination.