Officials: Polio outbreak in Syria threatens region
BEIRUT — A cluster of 10 young Syrian children has been infected with polio, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, sparking fears of a major regional outbreak amid mass migration and the collapse of Syria’s health services under the pressures of civil war.
WHO officials warned there is a significant risk of the infectious disease spreading after the cases were confirmed in the eastern province of Deir elZour. Twelve more children suspected to be suffering from the virus are awaiting test results.
In response to the outbreak, seven countries in the region, including Syria and its neighbors Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, have announced that they are launching emergency vaccination programs during the next three weeks to cover 20million children in a six-month period, the WHOsaid.
The war in Syria has created conditions for the spread of communicable diseases. The country’s health care system has been devastated by the 21⁄ year conflict, with routine immunization programs disrupted amid the violence.
Health workers have warned that the unsanitary conditions in which many of the millions of displaced live are breeding grounds for diseases such as polio, which is spread through contaminated food or water supplies. With as many as 4,000 refugees fleeing the country every day, the risk of the disease spreading is particularly serious.
Destruction of watertreatment plants, electric power plants and other infrastructure has left Syrians “on average with only one-third the daily water” available to thembefore the A health worker administers a polio vaccination to a schoolgirl this month in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
Deputy prime minister dismissed
BEIRUT — Syria’s deputy prime minister, Qadri Jamil, was dismissed Tuesday for leaving the country and acting without government permission after meeting U.S. officials in Switzerland, state media said.
The fired minister is a member of what President Bashar Assad calls the “patriotic opposition” — political parties that consider themselves rivals to the president but have not joined the revolt against his rule.
“Jamil … undertook activities outside the nation without coordinating with the government,” said a statement posted on Syria TV.
U.S. and Middle Eastern officials told Reuters that Jamil met Robert Ford, the American ambassador to Syria, on Saturday in Geneva. conflict, muchof it contaminated, U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said in an interview Monday in Washington.
Doctors and health care workers have fled the country in massive numbers, Amos said, and U.N. humanitarian workers have been unable to reach nearly 3 million Syrians in need because they are prevented by government or opposition checkpoints from traveling to some areas by road.
“It’s the perfect storm into which to drop the polio virus,” said Bruce Aylward, assistant director general for polio and emergencies at the WHO. “It could explode.”
The disease, which usually affects children young- er than 5, can cause permanent paralysis within hours. Some cases result in death. There is no known cure.
Just 1 in 200 polio cases result in paralysis, meaning the real number infected in Syria is in the thousands, Aylward said.
“The confirmed cases are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Aylward, who estimates that the regional vaccination effort will cost at least $15 million.
The disease is endemic in three countries — Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. But its presence in those countries risks reinfections elsewhere.
The outbreak in Syria marks the first confirmed cases there in 14 years.