LAT: Polio Is on the Rise Again Despite Global Effort

[DeepModem Mom]

Polio Is on the Rise Again Despite Global Effort
The virus flared in Nigeria and was carried to Asia. In response to the outbreak, 77 million African children are being vaccinated.

By Charles Piller, Times Staff Writer


The latest outbreak of polio, which has spread from Nigeria as far as Indonesia, is the result of an untimely confluence of religion, war and waning vaccination efforts in some countries.

Since 2003 — when the virus started to spread from Africa to the Middle East to Asia — new infections have been reported in 17 countries that had been declared free of the disease.

Most of those countries have reported only sporadic cases, but Yemen now faces a major outbreak with 63, and Indonesia, which has reported eight cases so far, may be on the verge of a significant flare-up.

Each known case typically represents up to 200 undetected infections, so the virus is far more widely distributed than the statistics indicate.

With the summer approaching — the high season for polio transmission — the $4-billion global effort to stamp out the disease, led by the World Health Organization, is facing its most serious challenge since it began its campaign in 1988....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-polio15may15,0,1358198.story?coll=la-home-world

[jwirr]

1. I read that the Muslims in Nigeria

were refusing to have their children vaccinated because they are afraid it is part of the bushie & neo-con war against Islam. Can't say I blame them for thinking that.