Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-...three-year-old-paralysed-by-polio-in-myanmar/
Three-year-old paralysed by polio as Myanmar’s health system crumbles
Exclusive: A toddler has tested positive for vaccine-derived polio after civil war hits immunisation rates
Sarah Newey
Global Health Security Correspondent, in Bangkok
01 July 2025 4:26pm BST
A three-year-old girl has been paralysed after contracting vaccine-derived polio in Myanmar, the Telegraph has learned.
Doctors said the polio case, which was detected in Myanmar’s northeastern Shan state, is a clear sign of the damage done to the country’s healthcare system in four years of civil war and reveals gaping holes in vaccination coverage.
Concerns about polio were first raised on April 29 when a young girl in a village in Tangayan township – an area controlled by a powerful ethnic armed group close to the border with China – was diagnosed with acute flaccid paralysis, a tell-tale symptom.
A stool sample was then sent to Thailand, where laboratory analysis confirmed on May 29 that the case was vaccine-derived polio (VDP) type 1, according to a letter notifying the World Health Organization (WHO). The correspondence, seen by the Telegraph, is signed by an assistant secretary in the Myanmar regime’s Ministry of Health and dated May 30.
A spokesperson for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) confirmed the infection, noting that “only a single isolate was confirmed, and at this time there is no evidence of circulation”. It is the first known polio case in Myanmar since 2019...
Three-year-old paralysed by polio as Myanmar’s health system crumbles
Exclusive: A toddler has tested positive for vaccine-derived polio after civil war hits immunisation rates
Sarah Newey
Global Health Security Correspondent, in Bangkok
01 July 2025 4:26pm BST
A three-year-old girl has been paralysed after contracting vaccine-derived polio in Myanmar, the Telegraph has learned.
Doctors said the polio case, which was detected in Myanmar’s northeastern Shan state, is a clear sign of the damage done to the country’s healthcare system in four years of civil war and reveals gaping holes in vaccination coverage.
Concerns about polio were first raised on April 29 when a young girl in a village in Tangayan township – an area controlled by a powerful ethnic armed group close to the border with China – was diagnosed with acute flaccid paralysis, a tell-tale symptom.
A stool sample was then sent to Thailand, where laboratory analysis confirmed on May 29 that the case was vaccine-derived polio (VDP) type 1, according to a letter notifying the World Health Organization (WHO). The correspondence, seen by the Telegraph, is signed by an assistant secretary in the Myanmar regime’s Ministry of Health and dated May 30.
A spokesperson for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) confirmed the infection, noting that “only a single isolate was confirmed, and at this time there is no evidence of circulation”. It is the first known polio case in Myanmar since 2019...