The long drawn war between the human race and the life destroying disease of polio has recently taken a new turn with an outrageous outbreak of polio in Syria. The officials of United Nation have declared last Tuesday, 29th October that large number of children in Syria is affected by polio and emergency vaccination campaigns have to be arranged to counter this sudden outburst of the deadly disease. The emergency vaccination campaigns will be held not only in Syria but also the neighborhood countries to stop the spread of the disease.
A spokesman for the World Health Organization, Oliver Rosenbauer, has voiced his worry about the chances of the spread of the disease from one part of the region to another because people travel more frequently than before. He also confirmed that in Deir al-Zour, located in northern Syria, 10 kids out of 22 have been affected badly by polio. Due to the ongoing civil war in Syria around two million Syrian refugees have moved to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. A large number of refugees have also moved to Egypt and Israel. United Nations officials have started a huge immunization campaign across Syria and the countries where they are taking refuge. About 2.4 million kids in Syria alone need to get vaccines for polio and other dangerous diseases.
The sudden outbreak of polio is the side effect of the civil war that has been going on for 31 long months. The best proof of this is the fact that a large number of affected kids have not yet reached the tender age of 2. Before the war broke out Syria had a good healthcare system and 95% people were immunized against polio and other diseases. In the past one year UNICEF has done a great job by vaccinating 800,000 kids against polio. They have vaccinated around one million kids against different diseases despite of the difficulties posed by the civil war. Investigations are being conducted by the public health officials to find out how the disease came to Syria in the first place. It is being assumed that jihadi fighters from polio endemic countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan have brought the polio virus to Syria. Mr. Rosenbauer has said that attention should be given to eradicating the disease from countries where it is endemic to stop it from spreading any further.
