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 WHO
says child from Raqqa among 15 new polio cases in Syria
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[June 21, 2017]
GENEVA (Reuters) - Fifteen new cases of
polio have been confirmed in Syria, including a child who may have
caught the disease in Raqqa, the World Health Organization said on
Tuesday.
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 Aid workers are unable to vaccinate the population in and around
Raqqa, a city held by Islamic State militants and a target of
U.S.-led airstrikes.
The WHO reported two polio cases in an area of Syria partly held by
Islamic State earlier this month, the first re-emergence of the
virus in Syria since 2014 and a blow for hopes of eradicating the
disease globally.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told a U.N. briefing on Tuesday that
14 more cases had been found in the same area, the Mayadin district
of Deir al-Zor province, and another had come from Raqqa, a city
where Islamic State fighters are trying to resist a U.S.-backed
assault.
Tensions escalated on Sunday as the U.S. military brought down a jet
near Raqqa for bombing near U.S.-allied forces on the ground, and
Iran launched missiles at Islamic State targets in eastern Syria -
the first time each state has carried out such actions in the
multi-sided Syrian war.
“We are very worried, because obviously if there is already one case
of polio of a kid that is paralyzed it’s already an outbreak. We
know for example that for one kid that is paralyzed there are almost
200 asymptomatic so it means that virus circulating, so it is very
serious," Jasarevic said.
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He said the WHO was doing a health assessment to ascertain whether
the virus was circulating in Raqqa or if the polio sufferer had
simply traveled there and caught the virus elsewhere.
The 17 children who have been paralyzed so far first reported
symptoms between March 3 and May 23, and confirming the presence of
the virus takes 6-8 weeks, meaning the outbreak could grow before
its extent is known.
WHO plans to vaccinate 320,000 children under the age of five in
Deir al-Zor and 90,000 in Mayadin, Jasarevic said.
(Reporting by Tom Miles, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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