The Philippine Ministry of Health announced on the 19th that a 3-year-old girl living in Southern Ranao, Mindanao Island, has been confirmed to be infected with polio. This is the first case since the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the Philippines as a country that eradicated polio in 2000.
According to the Ministry of Health, one other girl has a paralytic suspicion of polio and is being examined for infection. Poliovirus was also detected in the sewers of the capital Manila and the waterways of southern Davao.
WHO said in a statement of the same day that the vaccination rate to prevent infection has declined in the Philippines in the last few years, “95% of children under the age of 5 need to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of infection. There is. "
Polio is transmitted when the virus enters the body through the mouth. According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the number of patients in Japan exceeded 5,000 in 1960, but vaccination has progressed and there have been no patients in the last 80 years. According to the WHO, infections are still seen in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. (Manila = Junko Suzuki)
