A campaign to immunise at least 92,000 children under five should boost efforts to prevent the spread of polio in north-western Kenya's Turkana region, where an outbreak has been reported.
NAIROBI, 12 March 2009 (IRIN) - "Two cases of polio had been confirmed in Turkana," Shanaaz Sharif, senior deputy director of medical services, told IRIN. Turkana borders Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda.
"Genotyping tests done in South Africa confirmed that the two cases were not indigenous but imported from Sudan," Sharif said.
The last polio case in Kenya was recorded more than 20 years ago. This year, however, at least 16 cases, all polio virus type one, have been confirmed in the Horn of Africa region.
Two of these were in Kenya, three in Uganda and 11 in Sudan, according to a report by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). The total number of cases for 2008 was 29.
The Ugandan cases, reported in the northern district of Amuru, were the first in 13 years. Ethiopia has not reported new cases in the past six months.
A synchronised immunisation campaign, Sharif added, would be carried out in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda later in March. The immunisation campaign in Turkana was carried out from 7-12 March.
"The risk of international spread from the outbreak in this region remains high," warned GPEI. "It is critical for the campaigns to be high quality, particularly in Sudan."
Polio, which can only be prevented by immunisation, is a highly infectious viral disease mainly affecting young children. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs, and in a small proportion of cases, paralysis, which is often permanent.
In 2006, polio was reported among Somali refugees in Dadaab, north-eastern Kenya.
Article courtesy of www.irinnews.org
