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Polio Reappears in Kenya after 22 Years

A case of polio has been discovered in Kenya, 22 years after the last case was reported. A three-year-old Somali refugee, who had recently entered the country after fleeing with her family from violent fighting between militia and government forces in her land of birth, developed the symptoms of the disease last month. This new case is a huge disappointment for the World Health Organization that is struggling to control the spread of the disease in Africa and across the globe.

The WHO had hoped to eradicate polio throughout the world by the year 2005 but this plan was stopped in its tracks after hard line Islamic clergymen accused the organization of tampering with the polio immunizations in an attempt by US authorities to make Islamic women infertile. As a result, polio vaccinations were banned in some African countries for a while from 2003 and women refused to allow health workers to inoculate their children. Only after the vaccinations were tested and the accusations against the CIA were proven to be false, was the boycott dropped. However, the disease reappeared in Ethiopia in 2004 and the country has since reported 37 new cases.

The three-year-old Somali child had in fact been inoculated, however, because of her young age, the immunization regimen was incomplete, making it quite possible for a vaccinated child to become infected. Health officials still hope to eradicate the disease from the world but explained that this new case set them back another year from their goal.