Yemen polio outbreak may cripple 100 children - WHO
A polio outbreak in Yemen could cripple more than 100 children before it is brought under control, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.
A Yemeni Health Ministry official said in the capital Sanaa on Monday the number of children diagnosed with the paralysing disease had risen to 40, nearly double the initial 22 cases the WHO confirmed in late April.
But the WHO said more suspected cases were under investigation.
"We expect the total number associated with this outbreak will rise to more than 100 before the outbreak is controlled,” said WHO spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer.
The disease, which mainly affects children under the age of five, causes irreversible paralysis. Low immunisation rates among children in Yemen, which last reported polio in 1996, have helped the virus spread, according to the WHO.
A nationwide immunisation campaign is planned in the second half of May. The U.N. children’s fund (UNICEF) is sending six million doses of oral polio vaccine, due to arrive in the poor Arab country next week, according to the WHO spokesman.
“Past experience has shown that with rapid, high-quality immunisation, such sporadic outbreaks can be controlled,” Rosenbauer said.
Yemen was the 15th polio-free country in which the disease has reappeared in the last two years, including 13 African countries and Saudi Arabia.
Last week four cases were confirmed in Indonesia, which last had polio a decade ago.
The twin outbreaks are fresh setbacks to the WHO’s campaign to stop transmission of polio worldwide by year-end.
The source of the resurgence of the disease in Africa is believed to be Nigeria. The country’s Kano state banned vaccines in mid-2003 because Muslim elders said they were part of a Western plot to spread HIV and infertility. Immunisations resumed after 10 months.
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