BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The World Health Organisation has declared a polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea and called for an “immediate” vaccination campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Samples of the highly infectious virus were found in two healthy children during a routine screening in Lae, a coastal city in the country’s north east.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Less than half of the country’s population are immunised against the potentially deadly disease, which is close to being wiped out but has recently resurfaced in some parts of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We have to do something about it and we have to do it immediately,” said Sevil Huseynova, WHO’s representative in Papua New Guinea, warning that the disease could spread beyond the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We have to make maximum effort to get 100% [vaccination] coverage,” Dr Huseynova said at a media conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Polio knows no borders.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The disease is caused by the poliovirus, which spreads through contact with an infected person’s faeces or droplets when they cough and sneeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It mostly affects children<\/a> under five years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no cure for polio, although the majority of people with the infection – including the two recent cases in Papua New Guinea – have no symptoms. Those who do may get a flu-like illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A small number of people infected with polio – between one in a thousand and one in a hundred – develop more serious problems that can lead to paralysis. This is also when the disease becomes life-threatening, particularly when paralysis affects muscles used for breathing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n