Overview – When and Where Was Polio Contracted Worldwide?

This layered map shows locations where an acute polio case had occurred in Australia or New Zealand. The locations and years are sourced from Polio Australia’s list of over 3815 Australian resident polio survivors who registered their details.

There are 3101 polio survivors who report experiencing their acute polio in Australia, and 62 had experienced their acute polio in New Zealand. This represents 20% or less of the polio survivors estimated to be living in Australia. The identification of polio survivors is challenging for numerous reasons.

The Australian layers are by decade, and therein listed by states. Clicking on a pin on the map reveals details of a known polio case. To hide a layer of pins (i.e. red ones) or to better see hidden pins from different decades, deselect the check boxes for other decades by clicking on the icon at the top left corner of the map below.

Some locations have many stacked pins. To see all cases in a location, open the larger map by clicking on the icon in the top right corner. Then type in the location name in the search feature next to the map title to obtain a list.

The remaining pins (house shaped) represent people who experienced their acute polio in another country but now live in Australia – there are 645 of these cases shown on this map. These cases are not reflective of all the actual international polio cases – see the WHO website or other nations’ websites for that data.

This is not a comprehensive list of all the Australian cases, but it does give other survivors, clinicians and researchers a reference point for where cases occurred and in what year. (i.e. Were you exposed to polio?) In addition, un-pinned locations close to where these pins are should not be considered ‘negative’ for polio circulating in the community in that same year.

If you are an Australian resident with a history of polio, you can add your details to the register here: www.australianpolioregister.org.au/register-today/.

The map was created by Polio Australia Inc. 2020.

The map was updated by Polio Australia Inc. 2023.