Syria fuels world polio crisis

Tuesday May 6th, 2014

The Syrian civil war has contributed to the re-emergence of polio as a global health threat, experts warned yesterday.

Three countries were named as "exporting" the wild poliovirus, leading to outbreaks across Asia and Africa.

These are Syria, Pakistan and Cameroon.

A World Health Organisation summit called on the governments of the three countries to declare the spread of polio a national public health emergency, taking action to ensure visitors and travellers have polio vaccination.

WHO named seven other countries facing outbreaks of the virus, calling on their governments to take similar steps. They are Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Israel, Somalia and Nigeria.

A statement from a WHO emergency committee said the situation was now a "Public health emergency of international concern."

It warned of a large number of states that are "conflict-torn and fragile" and are at high risk of the virus re-establishing itself because of the collapse of immunisation services.

A statement said: "If unchecked, this situation could result in failure to eradicate globally one of the world’s most serious vaccine preventable diseases."

Tags: Africa | Asia | Flu & Viruses | World Health

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