Polio infects child in Kenya, first case since 2006
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Polio has infected a four-year-old girl in northern Kenya in the country's first case of the disease since 2006, the government said on Wednesday.
The girl is believed to have contracted the virus from neighbouring southern Sudan, which has struggled to improve its health sector since a 2005 peace deal ended a two-decade civil war.
Shahnaaz Sharif, Kenya's director of public health and sanitation, said a vaccination campaign would begin in the area on March 7 and would aim to immunise more than 95,000 children.
Youngsters under three are most at risk from the disease, which can cause irreversible paralysis. Vaccines have eliminated the virus as a public health threat in most parts of the world. (Reporting by Alison Bevege; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
The girl is believed to have contracted the virus from neighbouring southern Sudan, which has struggled to improve its health sector since a 2005 peace deal ended a two-decade civil war.
Shahnaaz Sharif, Kenya's director of public health and sanitation, said a vaccination campaign would begin in the area on March 7 and would aim to immunise more than 95,000 children.
Youngsters under three are most at risk from the disease, which can cause irreversible paralysis. Vaccines have eliminated the virus as a public health threat in most parts of the world. (Reporting by Alison Bevege; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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