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Source: http://www.brandonsun.com/lifestyle...r---a-concern-who-expert-254954821.html?thx=y
Polio spread in Cameroon - which borders troubled CAR - a concern: WHO expert
By: Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press
Friday, Apr. 11, 2014 at 6:06 PM
The Canadian official who heads the WHO's polio eradication effort says of the many challenges facing the quarter-century-old program, evidence of polio in Cameroon ? which borders on the troubled Central African Republic ? is currently one of the most concerning.
The polio eradication campaign has faced a number of significant setbacks in the past year or so, with outbreaks in the Horn of Africa ? Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia ? as well as war-torn Syria.
But of the ongoing outbreaks, Dr. Bruce Aylward said the situation in Cameroon is the one which worries him the most at the moment, listing a number of reasons.
Analysis of polioviruses from Cameroon suggests they have been circulating unchecked and undetected for at least a couple of years. Several recent nationwide vaccination campaigns have not appeared to halt the spread. And viruses from Cameroon have spread to neighbouring Equatorial Guinea.
That highlights the risk of further spread to another neighbour, the Central African Republic, where ethic-inspired killing is raising the spectre of another Rwanda. This week the United Nations agreed to send a nearly 12,000-person-strong peacekeeping force to the country...
Polio spread in Cameroon - which borders troubled CAR - a concern: WHO expert
By: Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press
Friday, Apr. 11, 2014 at 6:06 PM
The Canadian official who heads the WHO's polio eradication effort says of the many challenges facing the quarter-century-old program, evidence of polio in Cameroon ? which borders on the troubled Central African Republic ? is currently one of the most concerning.
The polio eradication campaign has faced a number of significant setbacks in the past year or so, with outbreaks in the Horn of Africa ? Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia ? as well as war-torn Syria.
But of the ongoing outbreaks, Dr. Bruce Aylward said the situation in Cameroon is the one which worries him the most at the moment, listing a number of reasons.
Analysis of polioviruses from Cameroon suggests they have been circulating unchecked and undetected for at least a couple of years. Several recent nationwide vaccination campaigns have not appeared to halt the spread. And viruses from Cameroon have spread to neighbouring Equatorial Guinea.
That highlights the risk of further spread to another neighbour, the Central African Republic, where ethic-inspired killing is raising the spectre of another Rwanda. This week the United Nations agreed to send a nearly 12,000-person-strong peacekeeping force to the country...