Yemen launches anti-polio drive amid outbreak fears
Yemen has launched a major polio vaccination campaign amid fears the disease could reappear in the war-ravaged nation where the health-care system is on the verge of collapse and aid agencies are warning of famine.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), which is supporting the drive, said some 40,000 health workers aimed to immunise more than 5 million children under the age of five across the country. “The threat of [polio] virus importation is serious and this campaign aims to curb any possible return of the virus to Yemen,” WHO’s representative in Yemen, Nevio Zagaria, said in a statement.
Polio, which spreads quickly among children and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours, remains endemic in only three countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
Yemen was declared polio-free in 2009, but experts say conflict-affected countries are particularly at risk of outbreaks because of disruption to their health systems.
WHO’s spokesman on polio eradication, Sona Bari, said both Syria and Iraq saw polio outbreaks a few years ago. “We have been very lucky that polio hasn’t shown up in Yemen, but it is a virus that travels very easily and is very good at finding unprotected children,” she said. The immunisation drive, which began on Monday, had been scheduled for last September, but insecurity has hampered access.
Bari said WHO was also worried about the risks of polio emerging in countries in the Lake Chad basin, Syria, Iraq, Somalia and South Sudan. Rabbo Mansour Hadi against Al Houthi rebels allied with forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
A military coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, intervened in Yemen’s civil war nearly two years ago to back President
Malnutrition
“Given that the country is 80-90 per cent dependent on imported food staples, I am compelled to raise the alarm,” the UN official said.
“If left unabated, these factors combined could accelerate the onset of famine.”
Also on Tuesday, the United Nations children’s agency warned that 462,000 children were suffering from acute malnutrition.
The UN aid chief warned last month that the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country was sliding deeper into humanitarian crisis and could face famine this year.
Stephen O’Brien said that without “immediate action”, famine was “a possible scenario for 2017.” More than 7,400 people have been killed since the intervention began nearly two years ago, including around 1,400 children, according to the United Nations.