The World Health Organisation say there’s been an outbreak of the potentially deadly disease polio in Syria.
They confirmed ten cases of Polio have been identified in young children, the first time in 14 years that the disease has been found there.
Before the war began in 2011, around 95 per cent of children were vaccinated against the disease but now it’s thought 500,000 children have not been immunised.
The infection, which is spread through dirty water, attacks the body making sufferers disabled and in worst c
The polio outbreak in Syria is depressingly similar to previous resurgences in countries such as Sudan and Colombia, where the once eliminated virus exploited opportunities offered by conflict and poverty to find its way back in.
Polio spreads easily from person to person. The WHO’s ominous warning is that as long as any child remains infected, children everywhere are at risk.
It is planned to launch an additional immunization campaign in Syria’s neighboring countries with a special emphasis on refugees.
The Armenian Ministry of Health urges all Syrian Armenians under 15, who have migrated to Armenia in the past month, to apply to policlinics to detect the disease at an early stage or get vaccination.
