The crippling viral disease usually strikes children under five years of age, making the acute, fast-spreading outbreak abnormal, the U.N. agency said. "Most of the cases have concerned young adults aged between 15 and 29. This illustrates that populations are at risk because they have not been exposed to a full vaccination," it said. It marks the newest setback to a global campaign begun more than 20 years ago to wipe out polio, for which there is no cure, only defensive vaccines. The death toll in the central African state is 97 with a further 226 people paralyzed, and the majority victims are in the port city of Pointe Noire. The mortality rate is advanced than normal for the disease, which attacks the nervous system.
The virus is now confirmed as having reach Congo from Angola after it also extend to the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this year, WHO spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer said. It comes from damage from India, one of four residual endemic countries where the virus survives and its spread has never been interrupted along with Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. A first wave of mass polio immunization campaigns, targeting 3 million people of all ages, is put to begin on Friday in Congo and part of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. "This way we can be certain that everybody is reached, including young adults, whose protection may be low," said Luis Sambo, WHO's regional director for Africa.
The WHO warned final month that a persistent outbreak of polio that began in Angola in 2007 could spread globally due to poorly managed vaccination campaigns. An epidemic this year in Tajikistan, a Central Asian state, accounts for 458 of 767 cases definite so far in 19 countries, Rosenbauer said. There were 1,604 cases worldwide in 2009. Pakistan is the only endemic country to have advanced numbers of cases this year, with 111 beside 76 at this time last year, he said. Record floods and poor sanitation are blamed. Namibia had a polio outbreak among adults in 2006 but direct to stop it’s extending within 50 days.
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The virus is now confirmed as having reach Congo from Angola after it also extend to the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this year, WHO spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer said. It comes from damage from India, one of four residual endemic countries where the virus survives and its spread has never been interrupted along with Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. A first wave of mass polio immunization campaigns, targeting 3 million people of all ages, is put to begin on Friday in Congo and part of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. "This way we can be certain that everybody is reached, including young adults, whose protection may be low," said Luis Sambo, WHO's regional director for Africa.
The WHO warned final month that a persistent outbreak of polio that began in Angola in 2007 could spread globally due to poorly managed vaccination campaigns. An epidemic this year in Tajikistan, a Central Asian state, accounts for 458 of 767 cases definite so far in 19 countries, Rosenbauer said. There were 1,604 cases worldwide in 2009. Pakistan is the only endemic country to have advanced numbers of cases this year, with 111 beside 76 at this time last year, he said. Record floods and poor sanitation are blamed. Namibia had a polio outbreak among adults in 2006 but direct to stop it’s extending within 50 days.
useful links : transport rankings
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