The offices of the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF in Ukraine have expressed concern about a possible outbreak of poliomyelitis in Ukraine.
"A country in which the immunization rate is 30-50 percent is exposed to high risk... The usual age for complete anti-polio vaccination is up to one year of age," Head of WHO Country Office Dorit Nitzan Kaluski told journalists in Kyiv on Nov. 15.
She noted that the risk of a polio outbreak from an imported virus in
Ukraine significantly increased last month. Kaluski noted that in
Israel the polio virus was recorded in children who are not ill, but are
carriers of the infection. In addition, cases of the disease were
recorded in Syria.
“We, WHO, as well as our partners from UNICEF and our colleagues in
the Ukrainian government, evaluate the current situation as highly
risky,” she added.
Kaluski also said that if the immunization coverage in the country
does not reach 90 percent, then there is a risk of disease outbreaks.
Yukie Mokuo, the U.N. Children’s Fund representative in Ukraine, in
turn, said: “One of the reasons that leads to a high risk of an outbreak
is low immunization coverage… Not a single case of polio has
currently been registered in Ukraine. We are talking about risk.”
WHO and UNICEF offices also said that Ukraine should raise the level of confidence in vaccination.
At the same time, Kaluski said that the Independent Monitoring Board
had published a report in which Ukraine was among the countries with a
high risk of outbreaks of the disease, along with Yemen, the Central
African Republic, Uganda, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan , South Sudan, Sudan,
and Iraq.
