World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday announced that Laos has suffered a case of vaccine- derived polio which is a new setback to a global effort to eradicate the crippling disease after the virus resurfaced in Ukraine and Mali.
The WHO said an 8-year-old boy died of the disease on September 11, and genetic sequencing suggested the virus strain has been circulating in the area of Bolikhamxay province, which has low immunization rates, for more than two years.
There is no cure for polio, which attacks the nervous system and could cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection. But a global vaccination campaign has all but beaten the wild polio virus, with only Pakistan and Afghanistan reporting cases of wild polio virus infection this year. Specialists have warned that vaccine-derived cases – such as this one in Laos and previous ones in Ukraine and Mali – could hamper progress towards global eradication.
The WHO stressed that “ending polio for good requires eliminating both wild and vaccine-derived polio.”
It added, however, that because of relatively limited travel to and from this area, and because of extra immunization campaigns planned in response, the risk of international spread of this polio strain from Laos was low.
By: Winifred Ogbebo and Victor Okeke
Leadership News
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