Polio strikes more Angolan children
Pastor Dale Morgan
Polio strikes more Angolan children*
* Story Highlights
* 4 infants have been infected in country once free of polio
* There is risk the virus could spread from Angola into neighboring
countries
* 5.9 million children due to be vaccinated on August 31 in Angola
* Polio remains endemic in Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan
GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) -- Four infants aged five months to 21
months have been infected with polio in Angola, a southern African
country which was once clear of the crippling disease, the World Health
Organization said on Friday.
Ten people have been stricken with polio since the beginning of 2007 in
Angola, which had just two confirmed cases last year, raising concerns
the virus could spread into neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo,
Zambia and Namibia.
The four new infections occurred in Angola's western Luanda and Benguela
provinces, on the Atlantic coast, the United Nations agency said in a
statement.
Polio, a highly infectious disease that proliferates in situations of
poor hygiene, has been wiped out in most of the world but remains
endemic in four countries -- Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Angola's polio cases are believed to be of Indian origin, but it is not
clear when it was imported into the country, which had no incidence of
polio from 2002 to 2004.
WHO spokeswoman Sona Bari said there was a high risk the virus could
spread from Angola into the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is
responding to its own outbreak, also traced back to India.
Some 5.9 million children under the age of 5 are due to be vaccinated on
August 31 in the latest of Angola's national immunization days aimed at
ridding the country of polio. It can take several doses of the oral
vaccine to ensure immunity.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative -- a joint project of the WHO,
UNICEF, the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
Rotary International -- last month cited "major operational challenges"
in Angola, noting inadequate supervision and vaccinator training had
"severely marred" previous campaigns.
"Campaign quality and sub-national surveillance are of concern in both
countries, particularly Angola," Bari said.
Children under the age of 5 are most at risk from the virus causing
polio, which can cause incurable life-long paralysis within hours.
Worldwide, there have been 345 confirmed cases of polio so far this
year, concentrated mostly in India and Nigeria, compared with 1,999
cases in the full year in 2006 and 350,000 annually when the global
eradication drive began in 1998.
In addition to Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, other
previously polio-free countries battling infections from the virus in
2007 include Myanmar, Chad, Niger and Somalia.