The World Health Organization has announced that it has started an emergency meeting on polio due to the discovery of numerous cases imported since January.
At the initiative of the World Health Organization, an emergency meeting on polio began on Monday following the discovery of new foci in Asia, the Middle East and Central Africa. In total, ten countries are affected.
WHO said in a statement to AFP that at the end of this meeting, convened by Margaret Chan, the director general, the emergency committee will have to indicate whether it considers that the current level of spread of the polio constitutes “a global public health emergency requiring action”.
A very contagious disease
Polio is an extremely contagious disease affecting mainly children under 5 years old and can cause paralysis within hours which can be irreversible in some cases.
Thanks to the global effort to eradicate the disease, the number of cases has fallen by 99% since 1988, according to the WHO. Today there are only three countries where the disease is said to be endemic, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. However, the disease continues to spread internationally from endemic and re-infected countries, says the WHO.
3 new manifestations of polio since January
The organization explained that “between January and April, usually the low season for polio transmission, three new outbreaks of imported polio cases were detected in Asia (from Pakistan to Afghanistan), the Middle East (from Syria towards Iraq) and in Central Africa (from Cameroon to Equatorial Guinea) ”. Events that prompted Ms. Chan to convene this emergency committee.
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