By Andreas Rinke
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany has gone back on plans to cut its contribution to a global fund to support the eradication of polio after authorities found traces of a variant of the disease in Hamburg wastewater, officials said on Friday.
In last-minute negotiations finalising the 2026 budget, legislators decided to allocate an additional 4 million euros to Germany’s contribution to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, bringing the total contribution to 23 million euros ($26.82 million).
On Wednesday, Reuters reported that regular wastewater sampling had found traces of the wild variant of the polio virus in Hamburg in a blow to eradication efforts more than 30 years after the last wild polio infection in Germany.
The World Health Organisation said it was the first such finding in samples in Europe since 2010.
“As the biggest donor in the field of global health, the German government remains, despite budgetary consolidation, a reliable international partner in the fight against infectious diseases,” said a spokesperson for the development ministry.
Development and global health initiatives were severely hit by the shuttering of the United States’ international aid programme USAID at the start of this year. At the time, German Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan said there was no way European countries could on their own fill the gap left by the U.S. departure.
In Germany, development aid was also the part of the federal budget hardest hit by the consolidation efforts of conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government.
High levels of vaccination in Germany mean the threat posed by the wild polio finding are minimal, but the development ministry said contributions to vaccinations in other countries helped to protect everyone.
“Viruses recognise no borders,” the spokesperson said. “Vaccinations in Malawi or Peru protect people in Germany from infectious diseases like polio.”
The ministry said it was increasing its funding to the World Food Programme to 40 million euros next year, an increase of 12 million euros.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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