Manila – Six more cases of polio have been detected in the Philippines, bringing to 14 the total number of patients with the highly contagious disease, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.
The patients, children under five, were from provinces in the southern region of Mindanao, according to a situation report by the two international bodies.
“The risk for further polio transmission continues to be assessed as high at the national level, because of chronically sub-optimal immunisation coverage and poor sanitation and hygiene conditions,’’ the report said.
The WHO and UNICEF said they had dispatched nearly 40 consultants to work with Philippines health officials and support an immunisation campaign in Mindanao and metro Manila.
The Philippines was declared free of polio 19 years ago but in September 2019, the government announced that a three-year-old-girl from the southern province of Lanao del Sur was found to have the disease, which is caused by the poliovirus and can cause paralysis.
Since then, the Department of Health has been conducting a vaccination campaign targeting all children below five years of age in Manila and Mindanao.
It has scheduled new rounds of immunisation drives until April.
The report said three cases of polio were also reported in Sabah, Malaysia, which is near Mindanao.
The cases were found to be genetically linked to a case in the southern Philippines province of Basilan.
(dpa/NAN)
