Thirty-eight children have been paralysed by polio in Syria and Iraq since October 2013 and there is a high risk that the disease will spread further in the Middle East, the United Nations has said.
“It is now even more imperative to reach every child multiple times, and to do whatever we can to vaccinate children we could not reach in previous rounds,” said United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Middle East and North Africa Regional Director Maria Calivis, in a report.
The disease, which broke out in Deiral Zor, the largest city in the eastern part of Syria, has reportedly infected 36 people in the crisis-hit country so far.
Most of the Syrian cases were recorded in Deiral Zor with several others reported in Aleppo, Idlib, Hama and Hasakah.
“Right now we estimate that there are 765,000 children inside Syria who live in areas that are hard to reach. And as long as we do not get full and regular access to these children, the chances of polio spreading further will continue to exist,” said UNICEF spokesperson Juliette Touma.
The two cases in Iraq are children reportedly living around the capital, Baghdad.
Between December 2013 and June 2014, a polio vaccination campaign was launched in seven Middle Eastern countries, which reached a record 25 million children, according to UNICEF and the World Health Organisation.
A second phase of the campaign is planned to kick off in August.