Syria, neighbors to vaccinate 20 million children against polio

BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY AND KATE KELLAND

GENEVA/LONDON Fri Nov 8, 2013 10:06am EST

(Reuters) - More than 20 million children are to be vaccinated in Syria and neighboring countries against polio to try to stop the spread of the crippling infectious disease following its re-emergence there after 14 years, United Nations agencies said on Friday.

The mass vaccination against polio, which can spread rapidly among children, is already under way in the Middle East a week after the region declared a polio emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.

Aiming to repeatedly vaccinate about 20 million children in seven countries and territories, it will be the largest-ever consolidated immunization response in the Middle East. Civil war in Syria and the movement of refugees in the region have hampered immunization in recent years.

"The polio outbreak in Syria is not just a tragedy for children, it is an urgent alarm - and a crucial opportunity to reach all under-immunized children wherever they are," Peter Crowley, UNICEF's Chief of Polio, said in a statement.

He said the recent outbreak in Syria, confirmed by the WHO last week, should "serve as a stark reminder to countries and communities that polio anywhere is a threat to children everywhere.

WHO spokeswoman Sona Bari said it would take six months of repeated campaigns to reach 22 million children.

"It is going to need quite an intense period of activity to raise the immunity in a region that has really been ravaged both by conflict in some parts, but also by large population movements," she told a briefing in Geneva.

The first polio outbreak in Syria since 1999, it has so far paralyzed 10 children and poses a risk of paralysis to hundreds of thousands of children across the region, the WHO said.

Emergency immunization campaigns in and around Syria to prevent transmission of polio and other preventable diseases have vaccinated more than 650,000 children in Syria, including 116,000 in the northeast Deir al-Zor province where the polio outbreak was confirmed. There is high demand among parents.

FULL STORY: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/08/us-polio-syria-vaccinatio...