A polio epidemic in Somalia is spiraling out of control in the areas that are most destabilized by civil war.
The Aid workers who are trying to effect mass vaccination are finding their work to be nearly impossible among the violence, and this is allowing the epidemic to increase in unmanageable ways.
The country, and its neighboring states, had been an example of how to defeat a disease, a success story if you will, and had just recently been declared polio free.
Now however, more than 105 cases have been confirmed, with many more probably not yet tallied.
The mass vaccination programs did reach 4 million people in the past, but the problem and hence the major risk, resides with children, who are now the most vulnerable in the outbreak. The areas that are controlled by Al Qaeda are totally inaccessible to the vaccine program operators.
The more worrisome aspect of the outbreak is that the cases they have recorded so far are of extreme symptoms, including paralysis, a bellweather mark of thousands more cases that are probably already 'walking', people or children who have been infected, and therefore vehicles for further spreading of the disease, but who do not yet have symptoms.
Some cases have also been recorded in North Eastern Kenya, a hot spot for Somalian refugees. Some of the refugees often cross the borders as they move to and fro the camps. There are more than 500,000 Somalis in the refugee camps in Kenya.
To make matter worse, the epidemic seems to have a wide range, although the majority of cases are now clustered in the center and southern regions, there are now 'fires' in the neighboring Somaliland to the northwest.
Since Polio can be spread by person to person contact, the risk of the epidemic becoming widespread and overwhelming is very real.
In addition, aid workers, who are often suspected of being in collusion or working for foreign entities, are increasingly being attacked by extremist muslim groups.
An indicator of how bad things are for aid workers was signified last week when Medicines Sans Frontieres, a group that is know to brave the harshest conflicts, pulled out of Somalia operations altogether.
Source : France 24/ 8.16.13
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