'Explosive' Polio outbreak spreads to Kenya, says UN
Dadaab refugee camp. Kenya had been declared polio-free three years ago.
What you need to know:
- "It’s very worrying because it’s an explosive outbreak," Mr Rosenbauer told the Associated Press news agency.
New York
Warning of "an explosive outbreak," a United Nations official said on Friday that a dozen cases of polio have been confirmed among Somali refugees in Kenya.
The UN reported in May that five cases of the highly infectious disease had been identified in the Dadaab refugee complex.
In Somalia itself, 105 polio cases have now been confirmed, said Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative at the World Health Organisation.
"The fact that this number of children show symptoms of paralysis means that there are probably thousands more with the virus, who do not have symptoms, but are capable of spreading it," the UN's Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs added.
"It’s very worrying because it’s an explosive outbreak," Mr Rosenbauer told the Associated Press news agency.
Considerable progress has been made globally in recent years toward eradication of a disease that cripples and kills. Polio is now considered endemic in only three countries -- Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Kenya had been declared polio-free three years ago.
