A four-year-old Israeli child living in Jerusalem was diagnosed with polio, a disease that was believed to be eradicated in that country because no cases had been recorded since 1989, the local Health Ministry reported.
As officially stated, the child was not vaccinated against the disease and “it seems to have been infected with a strain that has undergone mutation and could cause disease in those who are not vaccinated”, for which the Ministry of Health called for inoculation for those who have not.
“Vaccination is the only way to protect children from this crippling disease that is highly infectious,” the Israeli Health Ministry said.
“Vaccination is the only way to protect children from this crippling disease that is highly infectious”
The Jerusalem Regional Health Administration opened an epidemiological investigation and is in contact with the child and his family to receive specific instructions, the Sputnik Agency reported.
Likewise, from the organism they said that they have found “indications of the virus in samples of sewage in the area”while they pointed out that this had already happened in the past without “reporting any infection afterwards.”
This case comes at the same time that an outbreak of the virus was reported in Malawi; where the strain found was linked to a variant that was circulating in Pakistan, where polio is still endemic, as well as in Afghanistan.
Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious disease that invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours; and although there is no cure, it can be prevented with a vaccine, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
