Ammon News - With Reuters and the Associated Press - A polio outbreak has been confirmed among young children in northeast Syria, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.

“Out of those 22 being investigated, 10 are now confirmed to be polio type one,” WHO spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer told a news briefing in Geneva. Laboratory results were still being awaited on the remaining 12 suspected cases in Deir al-Zor, he said.
The polio virus, a highly contagious disease, usually infects children in unsanitary conditions through the consumption of food or liquid contaminated with feces. It attacks the nerves and can kill or paralyze, and can spread widely and unnoticed before it starts crippling children, according to the Associated Press.

“This is a communicable disease - with population movements it can travel to other areas,” said Rosenbauer. “So the risk is high of spread across the region.”

Syria had launched a vaccination campaign around the country, but the campaign faces difficulty with lack of access in many parts of the war-torn country.

Polio was last reported in Syria in 1999.