Polio outbreak over in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — A polio outbreak in the Philippines has ended, according to the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund, which praised government efforts to fight the disease despite the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.N. agencies said in a joint statement on Friday that the Philippine Department of Health concluded its response to the polio outbreak on June 3 after no cases were detected for 16 months following a massive immunization campaign and surveillance.

Philippine health officials announced that polio had reemerged in the country in September 2019, nearly two decades after the WHO had declared the Southeast Asian nation free of the viral disease, which can cause paralysis and death. There is no known cure.

Government health officials, backed by the WHO and UNICEF, then considerably expanded an anti-polio campaign which continued despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. About 30 million doses of oral polio vaccine were administered to children across the Philippines.