Rome (Fides Service) - The World Health Organisation has confirmed that another six children in Indonesia have polio and this brings the number of confirmed cases to 14 after a decade without any case of polio being registered in this country.
What is ever more alarming is that half the new cases reported were identified outside the Sukabumi district of Java, where the first cases were registered at the beginning of May. The virus ahs spread to Lebak and Bogor, where and Indonesian government vaccination programme aims to reach five million children to stop the virus from spreading. The first case of polio since 1995 in Indonesia was reported on 21 April, the patient is an 18 month old boy. It is thought that the virus may have been carried here from Saudi Arabia which was infected by the virus coming Nigeria.
Indonesian health authorities have tightened control throughout the islands to identify new cases immediately.
Children under five are at risk. The virus strikes the nervous system causing paralysis muscular atrophy and deformation. (AP) (25/5/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:18; Parole:218)