PressTV... The World Health Organization (WHO) has described the spread of polio as an international public health emergency, amid concerns over the new recorded cases of the crippling disease. “The conditions for a public health emergency of international concern have been met,” WHO assistant Director General Bruce Aylward said during a press briefing on Monday in the Swiss city of Geneva.
“If unchecked, this situation could result in failure to eradicate globally one of the world's most serious vaccine-preventable diseases,” he added.
The warning comes after new cases of polio emerged in a number of countries such as Syria, Somalia and Iraq. The disease is already circulating in seven other countries; namely, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Kenya.
The WHO convened an emergency committee last week in an effort to decide whether the ongoing polio outbreaks merit the declaration of an international health emergency.
Meanwhile, Aylward stated that a coordinated international response “is deemed essential to stop the international spread.”
The WHO has recommended that people from the affected countries have a certificate of polio vaccination before being able to travel abroad.
Polio mainly strikes children under five and is transmitted via contaminated food and water. It has no specific treatment or cure, but several vaccines exist.
Last year, 417 cases were detected internationally, but so far this year there have been 74 cases, 59 of them in Pakistan.
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