An outbreak of polio has been confirmed in Papua New Guinea (PNG), with the virus detected in a child 18 years after the nation was declared free of the disease, the WHO and the government said.
There was one confirmed case — a six-year-old boy from Morobe Province — with the disease detected in late April, and paralysis associated with the virus confirmed last month, the WHO said.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the same virus was also isolated from stool specimens of two healthy children in the same community, “representing an outbreak,” the WHO added.
“We are deeply concerned about this polio case in Papua New Guinea and the fact that the virus is circulating,” PNG Minister of Health Pascoe Kase said in a statement on Monday. “Our immediate priority is to respond and prevent more children from being infected.”
Steps taken to stop the spread of the highly contagious, crippling disease include conducting large-scale immunization campaigns and strengthening surveillance systems that help detect it early.
PNG has not had a case of the disease since 1996, and was certified as polio-free in 2000 along with the rest of the WHO’s western Pacific region.
There is low polio vaccine coverage in Morobe Province on the nation’s northern coast, with only 61 percent of children receiving the recommended three doses, the WHO said, adding that inadequate sanitation and hygiene were also issues in the area.
The region’s isolation and the planned immunization activities mean the risk of the virus spreading to other nations is low, the WHO said.
Affecting mostly children under the age of five, polio — which has no cure and can only be prevented by giving a child multiple vaccine doses — could lead to irreversible paralysis.
The number of polio cases worldwide has fallen by more than 99 percent since 1988, from an estimated 350,000 cases to 22 last year, WHO statistics showed.
Only three nations — Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan — were considered polio-endemic by the organization in March.
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