Philippine health officials declared a polio outbreak in the country yesterday, nearly two decades after the World Health Organization declared it to be free of the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said at a news conference that authorities have confirmed at least one case of polio in a three-year-old girl in southern Lanao del Sur province and detected the polio virus in sewage in Manila and in waterways in the southern Davao region.
He said that those findings are enough to declare an outbreak of the crippling disease in a previously polio-free country like the Philippines.
At least 95 per cent of children under age five need to be vaccinated to halt the spread of polio in the Philippines, WHO and UNICEF said.
Polio can cause paralysis and, in some cases, death.
