First polio case after 30 years

Polio, or poliomyelitis, can be a crippling childhood disease and is caused by the poliovirus, and is preventable through immunisation.

In Delta Amacuro, vaccine coverage only reached 67 per cent, according to a local watchdog group.

‘‘The government is not approving the money for the vaccines,’’ said Manuela Bolivar, an opposition MP who is part of a commission of the oppositioncontrolled National Assembly that is studying the surge of infectious diseases.

While the government launched a vaccination campaign on April 6 against 14 disease including tuberculosis and measles, critics say not enough vaccines are arriving to cover the demand. As the country’s crisis has deepened, the government has struggled to afford imports of basic foods, medicines, and vaccines.

Nicolas Maduro, the president, has blamed the deteriorating situation on an ‘‘economic war’’ led by business interests and the US to topple his socialist government, while denying that a humanitarian crisis exists.

According to Indhriana Parada, the vice-minister for health, the country ‘‘guarantees Manuela Bolivar essential medicines through a system of distribution to the most vulnerable sectors’’, a statement she made in a presentation to the World Health Organisation on May 23. But other medical organisations such as CodeVida, which monitors the shortages of medicines, say that 90 per cent of medicines and essential vaccines have disappeared from pharmacy shelves.

Delta Amacuro is home to the Warao communities, an indigenous group that lives in riverside huts on the Orinoco Delta. The Warao have already been wracked by a HIV epidemic. – Telegraph Group