25/10/2013 18:49
Syria polio outbreak 'spreads'
At least 22 people - most of them babies and toddlers - are now believed to have contracted polio in Syria, the World Health Organization has reported, according to the BBC.
If confirmed, it would be the first outbreak of the disease there in 14 years. Syria's Health Ministry began an immunisation drive on Thursday.
Before Syria's civil war began in 2011, some 95% of children were vaccinated against the disease.
Now, Unicef estimates 500,000 children have not been immunised.
WHO said the suspected outbreak centres on the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
"There is a cluster of 22 acute flaccid paralysis cases that is being investigated in that area," WHO spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer told Reuters news agency. "Everybody is treating this as an outbreak and is in outbreak response mode."
Two cases have already been confirmed by laboratory tests while the WHO expects final laboratory confirmation on the remaining 20 cases next week.
There are more than 100,000 children, all under age five, now at risk of polio in Deir Ezzor province alone, which has been caught in fierce battles between Syrian government forces and opposition fighters.
The city of Deir Ezzor remains partially controlled by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, while the countryside is in the hands of the opposition.