Somalia suffers major polio outbreak

(Vatican Radio) Somalia is suffering an major outbreak of polio and now has more cases than the rest of the world combined. Newly released figures show that Somalia now has over 100 cases of Polio.

Another 10 cases have been confirmed across the border in a Kenyan refugee camp filled with Somalis.

For health workers operating in a country controlled in parts by al-Qaida-linked militants, the task of reaching the 7 out of 10 children who aren’t fully immunized is a daunting one.

Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative at the World Health Organization in Geneva says population movement across the Horn of Africa is complicating the situation.

"There's a lot of population movement across the Horn of Africa and so because it's a communicable disease people as they travel can bring the virus and the disease with them..."


Polio is mostly considered eliminated worldwide except mainly in three countries where it is considered endemic: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Globally there have been 181 cases of polio this year, including those in Somalia and Kenya. Listen