The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday that this year’s cross-border spread of the wild-type strain of Heine-Medina disease virus (polio) is an emergency event that requires structured international countermeasures.
According to the WHO, by the end of 2013, 60 percent of polio cases were the result of the transnational spread of a wild strain of its virus, and there is growing evidence that adult travelers contributed to it.
During this year’s low-spread season, wild polio has been spread across borders from three countries where it occurs – Pakistan to Afghanistan, Syria to Iraq and Cameroon to Equatorial Guinea.
An organized international response is considered essential to contain this international spread of the wild-type polio virus strain and to prevent a new spread with the arrival of the new season of intense spread in May and June 2014, reads the WHO communiqué.
At the same time, it points out that the consequences of further cross-border spread would be particularly acute today, given the significant number of polio-free, but conflict and destabilized countries that have severely limited the vaccination campaign and face a serious risk of reinfection.
Polio is an infectious disease that mainly affects children up to the age of five. It is spread mostly through contaminated water. (PAP)