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Nigeria tackles polio outbreakDate: 11/10/2007 13:14:56
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The UN's World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that Nigeria is currently fighting a rare outbreak of vaccine-derived polio.
Some 69 children have caught the disease from previously immunised children via faecal or oral contact, the WHO explained.
Polio levels increase in areas with poor sanitation and a lack of coverage of certain areas by vaccination programmes has worsened the speed of the virus being transmitted, the Who said.
Who spokeswoman Sona Bari explained that the disease has previously spread to Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia and other countries where immunisation campaigns are limited.
The news comes as a vaccination campaign in the north of Nigeria in 2003 was stopped by Islamic leaders who claimed it was a western conspiracy to sterilise Muslim women, the BBC reports.
However health officials claim the latest outbreak demonstrates the necessity for more vaccination programmes to take place.
Polio is a viral infectious disease spread from person to person, with the potential to cause muscle weakness and even paralysis.
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