Europe faces polio threat from Syria

London: Europe is facing its biggest threat in decades of importing the crippling polio virus. The World Health Organization fears that the new outbreak of polio in Syria with the WPV1 strain, the most dangerous type of polio virus that cripples most of the children it infects, might endanger neighbouring regions, including Europe. 

    Two world renowned infectious disease experts have confirmed the real threat. 
    On Wednesday, the WHO increased the number of people it said must be vaccinated to 20 million as part of a vaccination campaign that will target children in Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Most of the 22 cases of polio-like paralysis in Syria (10 of which have been confirmed as wild poliovirus type) are among children below the age of two who were either not immunised or had not received all three doses of the vaccine, according to WHO