POLIO WORLD: 11/1/13

Nov 13, 2013

United Nations: Polio vaccination campaign in Sudan has failed.

Efforts to vaccinate 165,000 children against polio in Sudan's violence-wracked South Kordofan and Blue Nile states have failed, the director of UN humanitarian operations told the UN security council on Monday.

John Ging said he urged the UN's most powerful body to use its clout to get the children vaccinated.

Last month, the security council expressed alarm at the imminent threat of the spread of polio through the two states and the continuing outbreak of polio in the Horn of Africa.Read more www.theguardian.com

Nov 12, 2013

Polio virus strain found in Syria confirmed as originating from Pakistan, WHO says.

Syria's polio outbreak has been genetically linked to the strain circulating in Pakistan and is also related to the wild poliovirus appearing in Egypt, Israel and Palestinian territories in the past year, the World Health Organization announced on Monday .

The agency also reported an increase in the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases in Syria, which jumped from 10 to 13 cases. Wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1), a highly infectious strain that causes paralysis, has not been detected in Syria since 1999.

Nov 11, 2013

EUROPEAN UNION - Cross-border healthcare: patients’ rights.

The freedom to receive health services throughout the European Union must be accompanied by guarantees of quality and security. In order to make an informed choice, patients must be able to access all the information they require on the conditions under which they will receive healthcare in another EU Member State and the conditions under which they will be reimbursed once they return home.

Under this Directive, patients from Member States of the European Union will be able to travel to a different country other than their own to receive healthcare treatment, paying for the services they receive and subsequently applying for reimbursement from their own country, under certain conditions and, in the case of certain treatments, following prior authorisation. The spirit of this Directive is a response to the free circulation of people, goods and services within the EU.

Nov 8, 2013

A polio outbreak in Syria threatens to spread into Europe, according to experts.

WHO has confirmed an outbreak of at least ten cases of polio in Syria, where vaccination coverage has dramatically decreased during the civil war.

Furthermore, wild-type poliovirus 1 (WPV1) has been isolated from sewage and faeces from asymptomatic carriers in Israel since February, 2013. Tourists and travellers could bring the infection to other countries.

Precautions during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia in October, 2013, ensured that visitors from regions with known polio transmission were vaccinated, but Syria was not on the list.

Moreover, hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing Syria and seek refuge in neighbouring countries and Europe.

20 million children are to be vaccinated in Syria and neighboring countries against polio.

(Reuters) - More than 20 million children are to be vaccinated in Syria and neighboring countries against polio to try to stop the spread of the crippling infectious disease following its re-emergence there after 14 years,United Nations agencies said on Friday.

The mass vaccination against polio, which can spread rapidly among children, is already under way in the Middle East a week after the region declared a polio emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN children fund UNICEF said.

Nov 4, 2013

Syrian minister blames polio outbreak on 'jihadists' from Pakistan.

A Syrian government minister has claimed that foreign fighters waging a jihadist war are responsible for an outbreak of polio in the country.

Ten cases have been confirmed by the United Nations in the first substantiated outbreak of the disease in Syria in 14 years.Babies and toddlers under two years old have contracted the disease.

Kindah al-Shammat, the Social Affairs Minister, told the Associated Press news agency that jihadis from Pakistan were to blame.