Polio Outbreak

Crowds of Palestinians gathered at medical centers in the south of the embattled Gaza Strip on Thursday to have their children vaccinated against polio, the start of the second stage of a campaign that has so far seen 187,000 youngsters inoculated.

Israeli strikes on Saturday killed at least 48 people in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian health authorities said, as clashes took place in central and southern areas of the enclave ahead of the planned start of a polio vaccination campaign.

A 10-month-old baby in war-shattered Gaza has been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, the World Health Organization said on Friday, with U.N. agencies appealing for urgent vaccinations of every baby

A top WHO official said Tuesday he was "extremely worried" over possible outbreaks in war-torn Gaza after poliovirus was detected in the sewage, warning that communicable diseases could cause more deaths than injuries.

Paul Alexander faced many challenges since he was born in 1946. He endured the worst polio outbreak in US history with almost 58,000 cases - mostly children.

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a devastating disease that historically has caused paralysis and death around the world. It is caused by polioviruses, small RNA viruses that can damage cells in the nervous system.

Malawi's health authorities have declared a polio outbreak after a case was detected in a young child in the capital Lilongwe, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

They helped eradicate polio in India and reduced the number of women dying during child birth. But the country's catastrophic coronavirus outbreak, now the third-largest in the world, has pushed its all-female army of contact-tracing health workers to breaking point.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has welcomed the world health body's cooperation with India to leverage strategies that helped the country win its war against polio into the response to COVID-19 outbreak, saying such joint efforts will help defeat the pandemic.

Pakistan's government has launched a huge foreign-funded vaccination drive against typhoid that began on Nov 15.

The World Health Organization on Friday gave countries two weeks to replace a problem polio vaccine blamed for some outbreaks of the crippling disease, which the UN health agency is hoping to wipe out once and for all.

Ukraine reported on Tuesday the start of a polio vaccination drive that began only after health groups accused Kiev of being critically late in responding to Europe's first outbreak since 2010.

Two polio cases have been confirmed in western Ukraine, the first to be recorded in Europe since 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Pakistan will set up mandatory immunisation points at airports to help stop its polio outbreak spreading abroad, officials said on Tuesday, though a health minister said the move played into the Taliban's hands.

More than 20 million children are to be vaccinated in Syria and neighbouring 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.

Crowds of Palestinians gathered at medical centers in the south of the embattled Gaza Strip on Thursday to have their children vaccinated against polio, the start of the second stage of a campaign that has so far seen 187,000 youngsters inoculated.

Israeli strikes on Saturday killed at least 48 people in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian health authorities said, as clashes took place in central and southern areas of the enclave ahead of the planned start of a polio vaccination campaign.

A 10-month-old baby in war-shattered Gaza has been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, the World Health Organization said on Friday, with U.N. agencies appealing for urgent vaccinations of every baby

A top WHO official said Tuesday he was "extremely worried" over possible outbreaks in war-torn Gaza after poliovirus was detected in the sewage, warning that communicable diseases could cause more deaths than injuries.

Paul Alexander faced many challenges since he was born in 1946. He endured the worst polio outbreak in US history with almost 58,000 cases - mostly children.

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a devastating disease that historically has caused paralysis and death around the world. It is caused by polioviruses, small RNA viruses that can damage cells in the nervous system.

Malawi's health authorities have declared a polio outbreak after a case was detected in a young child in the capital Lilongwe, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

They helped eradicate polio in India and reduced the number of women dying during child birth. But the country's catastrophic coronavirus outbreak, now the third-largest in the world, has pushed its all-female army of contact-tracing health workers to breaking point.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has welcomed the world health body's cooperation with India to leverage strategies that helped the country win its war against polio into the response to COVID-19 outbreak, saying such joint efforts will help defeat the pandemic.

Pakistan's government has launched a huge foreign-funded vaccination drive against typhoid that began on Nov 15.

The World Health Organization on Friday gave countries two weeks to replace a problem polio vaccine blamed for some outbreaks of the crippling disease, which the UN health agency is hoping to wipe out once and for all.

Ukraine reported on Tuesday the start of a polio vaccination drive that began only after health groups accused Kiev of being critically late in responding to Europe's first outbreak since 2010.

Two polio cases have been confirmed in western Ukraine, the first to be recorded in Europe since 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Pakistan will set up mandatory immunisation points at airports to help stop its polio outbreak spreading abroad, officials said on Tuesday, though a health minister said the move played into the Taliban's hands.

More than 20 million children are to be vaccinated in Syria and neighbouring 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.