New polio cases reported from Pakistan, Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan
The number of polio cases reported to date in 2014 is 18, with 15 of these cases reported from Pakistan, according to a Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) update Wednesday.
The organization reports six new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) and two new circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) cases from Pakistan, specifically, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
In neighboring Afghanistan, one new WPV1 case was reported in the past week from 2014, bringing the total to three for the year.
The most recent WPV1 case had onset of paralysis on 31 January 2014 from Kunar province, Eastern Region.
The third polio endemic country, Nigeria, has yet to report a polio case in 2014.
The total polio cases in Syria increased by one as the GPEI reports one new WPV1 case was reported in the past week from Hasakeh governorate. This case had an onset of paralysis on 17 December and is the 24th case reported from Syria in 2013.
And finally, two additional cases of polio were reported from Somalia in the Horn of Africa outbreak. Both cases had an onset of paralysis last summer and are just now being reported due to a laboratory processing backlog. The total number of WPV1 cases in the Horn of Africa is now 215 (192 from Somalia, 14 from Kenya and nine from Ethiopia). There has not been any cases reported from the region in 2014.
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