In a briefing to reporters in Geneva, WHO Communications Officer Oliver Rosenbauer said that out of 22 reported cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), 10 had been confirmed as being the result of Wild Polio Virus Type 1. The remaining 12 cases are still being investigated.

The cases were initially reported on 17 October in the Deir Al Zour province in the north-east region of Syria. Due to the protracted conflict, which has displaced millions, Syria had already been considered at high-risk for vaccine-preventable diseases. However, the country has not experienced a case of polio since 1999.

Polio, whose virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine attacking the nervous system, is highly infectious and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours.

Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, and stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis and among those paralyzed, five to 10 per cent die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.

Rosenbauer said the next step was to look at the isolated viruses and identify where they came from, to shed light on the source of the outbreak.

The 22 people who have been tested are children, mostly toddlers less than two years old. All of them appeared to be under or unimmunized, with some having received one dose of a vaccine and others not receiving any vaccination at all. Rosenbauer said the children came down with fever and were then paralysed.

WHO spokesperson Glenn Thomas added that health authorities in Syria and neighbouring countries had already begun the planning and implementation of the comprehensive outbreak response.

Meanwhile, a UN spokesperson in New York reported yesterday that Anthony Lake, the Executive Director of UNICEF, ended a two-day visit to Damascus, in which he said that the Syrian Government and agency had agreed on the importance of reaching hundreds of thousands of children in some of the worst-affected parts of the war-torn country with life saving vaccines, including those against polio.

Lake said that immunizing children is in its very nature non-political and has no connection to any military considerations. Lake also said that, with cases of polio now emerging in Syria for the first time since 1999, vaccinating children against polio is an urgent and critical priority for Syria and for the whole world.

At least 63 people have been infected by the virus also known as H7N9.

WHO says more than 1,000 people who have been in contact with the confirmed cases are being closely monitored, although there has been no confirmation that the virus was spreading from one person to another.

The source of the virus remains unknown although some birds including chickens have tested positive for the virus.

An international team of scientists is expected in China later this week to assess the situation and advise on the way forward.

Glenn Thomas is a spokesperson for WHO.

“China has invited a team of international experts to carry out a one week joint assessment of the H7N9 situation in the country. The team will assess the outbreak and response to guide further prevention and control measures. Members include Chinese experts on epidemiology, laboratory tests and clinical treatment as well as experts and officials from the US, the EU, Australia and WHO.”

WHO says until the source of infection has been identified, it is expected that there will be further cases of human infection with the virus in China.

The UN health agency is currently not recommending that any travel or trade restrictions be applied to China.

Patrick Maigua, United Nations Radio Geneva.

“From the information available thus far, it appears that the novel coronavirus cannot be easily transmitted from person to person,” it said in a statement.

The 49-year-old man in the new case was sickened by a coronavirus, from a family of viruses which causes most common colds but also includes the virus that causes SARS or severe acute respiratory syndrome was transferred from Qatar for treatment in London. He had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia, where another man died of a similar illness earlier this year.

No new confirmed cases of infection with the virus have since been reported, the WHO said. The United Nations health agency said it was working with international partners to understand the public health risk better.

SARS which emerged in China in 2003 killed around a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.

The WHO’s clinical guidance to its 194 member states says health workers should be alert to anyone with acute respiratory syndrome and requiring hospitalisation who had been in the Middle East where the virus was found or in contact with a suspected or confirmed case within the previous 10 days.

The U.N. agency has not recommended any travel restrictions in connection with the new virus, but said it was working closely with Saudi authorities on health measures for Muslims making the haj pilgrimage to Mecca.

The virus created to gather and delete sensitive data in Middle East locations is already considered one of the “most sophisticated cyber weapons ever” Kaspersky said.

It said that the virus was several times larger than the Stuxnet worm that was discovered in 2010 and was used against the Iranian nuclear programme, reportedly under the command of Western security agencies, according to Haaretz. 

It said the virus had infected computers in Iran, the West Bank, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Haaretz reported.

According to Western media reports, Flame has been used to attack the Iranian oil ministry and Iran’s main oil export terminal.

Kaspersky’s chief malware expert Vitaly Kamluk told the BBC that more than 600 specific targets had been hit by Flame, including computers owned by individuals, businesses, eductional institutions and government systems.

Kapersky’s chief said he believed the bug had been operating at least since August 2010, and probably earlier, adding that only a state can be behind such a huge bug.

Iran has accused Israel and the US for its creation.

The country with the largest number of machines infected by Flame is believed to be Iran, following by the West Bank, and Sudan and Syria after that. Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt have also been affected.

In a speech in Sydney last week,  Kaspersky CEO Eugene Kaspersky said cyber weapons can cause as much damage as conventional attacks and there is nothing technology can do about it  to save us.