Lebanon: First Case of Polio Suspected Among Syrian Refugees

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/sy...uspected-among-syrian-refugees-lebanon-n49811


First Case of Polio Suspected Among Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
By Lisa A. Flam

A little boy lay on his hospital bed, his small body floppy on the left side. The 19-month-old, a refugee from the conflict in Syria, has not been vaccinated, and polio is suspected.

The child has been isolated with polio-like symptoms, NBC chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman said Tuesday. Dr. Zaher Haider, a pediatrician at the hospital filled with Syrian refugees in Taanayel, Lebanon, and officials from the World Health Organization have sent throat and stool samples from the boy to Cairo for confirmation of the deadly disease. A spinal tap for meningitis was negative...

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Lebanon: First Case of Polio Suspected Among Syrian Refugees

APRIL 10, 2014

Health Ministry: Lebanon faced by new polio threat

BEIRUT - Health Minister Wael Abu Faour warned that children in Lebanon are in danger of contracting polio due to new cases that have been detected in the region and called on media outlets to provide full coverage of a new campaign to combat the disease.

?During United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos?s last visit to Lebanon it transpired that new polio cases have been discovered in Syria, Iraq, Palastine and Russia,? he said at the launch of Lebanon?s fourth campaign to immunize against the disease.

?The closest danger for Lebanon lies in Syria where 38 cases have been observed. This means there could be [as many as] 200 hundred cases that have not been discovered until now.?

He called on media outlets to: ?Realize the magnitude of the responsibility and bring the educational health message to the Lebanese public.?

Abu Faour added that the ministry hopes Lebanon?s fourth campaign against polio will reach every Lebanese family.

?Our ambition is to reach 90 percent, or rather 100 percent, [of the country?s families] while past [campaigns] were limited to 84 percent of the required response in the best cases.?

Now