The Return of Polio: WHO Declares an International Public Health Emergency

The worldwide spread of polio is a cause for concern for the World Health Organization. The crippling disease is prevalent in African, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries. Its recent spread prompted the WHO to declare an international public health emergency.

There is no cure for polio and the only effective measure to prevent it is through vaccination, which managed to eradicate the disease in the United States by 1979. However, outbreaks are occurring in various countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Pakistan, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia, and Syria.

"The international spread of polio to date in 2014 constitutes an 'extraordinary event' and a public health risk to other states for which a coordinated international response is essential," stated the WHO's International Health Regulations Emergency Committee, according to BBC News. "If unchecked, this situation could result in failure to eradicate globally one of the world's most serious vaccine preventable diseases."

Syria, Somalia, and Iraq were previously polio-free, but social unrest and civil war makes it difficult to contain the virus. The WHO says that Pakistan, Cameroon, and Syria pose the greatest risk of polio exportations; and Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Israel, Somalia, and Nigeria pose the newest risks.

Out of the ten countries experiencing polio infections, only Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria are locations where the disease is endemic. Syria, which was re-infected with polio from Pakistan, was previously polio-free for fourteen years, and now WHO officials are concerned about Syrian refugees who may further spread the virus to nearby countries.

After Pakistan recorded 92 new polio cases last year, the WHO issued a warning that the Middle Eastern country poses the greatest resurgence threat. As a result, last month international health officials announced a global plan to eradicate polio worldwide by 2018 if they can raise $5.5 billion dollars. Despite strides being made in India after they were declared polio-free recently, issues remain elsewhere.