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.

In a report, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the outbreak has now affected 17 localities in central, south, west and north Darfur, with 194 cases reported – a significant increase from the 84 initial cases reported at the start of the outbreak.

An estimated 200,000 cases of yellow fever, which is caused by a virus spread by mosquitoes, are recorded worldwide each year, with as many as 30,000 deaths reported, according to WHO. Patients experience jaundice, as well as other symptoms, such as fever and vomiting. There is no specific treatment for the disease and vaccination is the single most important measure for prevention.

In addition to monitoring the disease throughout Darfur, WHO said it is training more than 225 health workers in the region on disease surveillance, case management and infection prevention and control.

The health agency is also working with the Sudanese Ministry of Health to dispatch technical teams to help tame the outbreak by conducting investigations on new cases, meeting with local community leaders to raise awareness of the disease, and provide blood bank supplies as well as protective equipment to affected areas.

The report’s recommendations also include strengthening disease surveillance in eastern Darfur, continuing laboratory testing of patients from newly affected localities, and finalizing a vaccination plan that identifies resources available as well as partners to implement it.

Over the weekend, Uganda’s Ministry of Health notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of an outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in the Kibaale district. A total of 20 cases, including 14 deaths have been reported since the beginning of July.

“A team of experts from the Ministry of Health, WHO and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is in Kibaale to support the response operations,” WHO said in a news release.

“All possible contacts that were exposed to the suspected and confirmed cases since 6 July 2012 are being identified for active follow up,” the agency added. “The necessary supplies and logistics required for supportive management of patients are being mobilized.”

The initial case was identified in a family from the village of Nyanswiga, where nine of the deaths were recorded. The deceased include a clinical officer who attended to a patient, and her four month-old child. Nine of the 14 deaths have occurred in a single household, according to WHO.

Currently, two patients are hospitalized and are in stable condition. Both cases were admitted to hospital with fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. However, neither of the cases has so far shown bleeding, a symptom that often appears in viral haemorrhagic fever patients.

Uganda has previously experienced outbreaks of Ebola fever, but the most recent outbreak was declared over in early 2008.

The virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, other bodily fluids or organs of infected persons or animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys and antelopes, and it has an incubation period of two to 21 days.

Sufferers can experience fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat, as well as vomiting, diarrhoea, rashes and impaired kidney and liver function. In the most severe cases, the virus leads to both external and internal bleeding.

In its news release, WHO added that it does not recommend that any travel or trade restrictions are applied to Uganda.