2 polio cases found in Ukraine: WHO - Action News
Home WebMail Tuesday, November 26, 2024, 11:33 AM | Calgary | -13.1°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Health

2 polio cases found in Ukraine: WHO

The World Health Organization says officials have found two children stricken by polio in Ukraine, the country's first cases of the paralytic disease in nine years.

Ukraine was at high risk of a polio outbreak due to its low vaccination rates

The World Health Organization says officials have found two children stricken by polio in Ukraine, the country's first cases of the paralytic disease in nine years.

Health officials had warned Ukraine was at high risk of a polio outbreak due to its low vaccination rates; only half of children were immunized against diseases like polio last year.

In this April 2013 photo pediatrician Fyodor Lapiy examines a child before administering him a combined vaccine. Only about half of Ukraine's children are fully immunized against vaccine-preventable communicable diseases, compared to over 90 per cent in Western Europe, according to UNICEF. (Sergei Chuzavkov/Associated Press)

In a statement this week, WHO confirmed polio in two children in southwestern Ukraine. The cases resulted from a mutated polio virus in the vaccine. In rare instances, the virus in the vaccine can evolve into a strain that causes new outbreaks.

WHO said the risk of Ukraine exporting polio to other countries was low but noted the region where the cases were found shares borders with Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland.