Ukraine: sufficient vaccine coming to block polio outbreak

Well being officers had warned Ukraine was at excessive danger of a polio outbreak as a result of its low vaccination charges; exclusively half of youngsters have been immunized towards illnesses like polio final yr.

A 10-month-old baby and a four-year-old child were diagnosed with the polio virus in Ukraine’s southwestern Zakarpattya region, which borders four European Union member states, after paralysis associated with the disease was detected, the Ukrainian health ministry had said on Tuesday.

There is unfortunately no solution for polio, which actually problems the general health and might cause irreparable paralysis inside several hours of an infection. It mainly affects young children in areas with poor sanitation. Like Ukraine, Madagascar and Nigeria have suffered vaccine-derived outbreaks.

The outbreak started from the weakened form of the virus that is used in vaccination.

The two cases are tied to a different type of virus than the one responsible for the 2010 outbreak, said the WHO. “This is a virus that’s very good at finding susceptible children”.

Rosenbauer went on: “You don’t have two kids infected with this strain”.

Oliver Rosenbaum, a spokesperson for the Polio Eradication Initiative at the World Health Organization, told the BBC News website: “It is now a risky strain. Now is the time to boost the immunity levels”.

The two cases are vaccine-derived polio, which is rare and occurs when the strains of poliovirus in the oral vaccine genetically mutate. The cost of such a response was still being worked out, he said.

Unicef said the situation in Ukraine was worsened by the financial crisis and “exacerbated by the ongoing conflict and large-scale population displacement in eastern Ukraine” where Russian-backed separatists are fighting the government.

Turkey was the last country in Europe where polio was endemic, but it has been rid of the disease since 1999.

Thanks to a global vaccination campaign, polio has largely been eradicated, and only Pakistan and Afghanistan have reported cases of wild polio virus this year.