Threatwatch is your early warning system for global dangers, from nuclear peril to deadly viral outbreaks. Debora MacKenzie highlights the threats to civilisation – and suggests solutions
It is the news disease-watchers feared: 22 suspected cases of polio have been reported in north-east Syria, and many more may be infected, spreading the virus. This is bad news for Syrians, and for the world. Polio is on the brink of eradication, and if the ongoing war in Syria frustrates efforts to smother this outbreak, the disease could make a wider comeback.
A massive vaccination drive across the entire region should be under way within weeks, say officials at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. However, the real problem, and probable source of the Syrian outbreak, is north-west Pakistan, where polio vaccination is banned by local leaders.
Polio is an intestinal virus spread mainly in sewage. If the virus is present in the community, exposure increases if sanitation systems are destroyed, or people flee to crowded, unsanitary refuges. More than 6 million Syrians are now refugees within or outside Syria, and half are children who may not have been vaccinated.
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