Middle East

Israel detects three new polio cases among children

The cases were detected during an epidemiological investigation after an eight-year-old boy from northern Israel tested positive for the virus earlier this week.

Tel Aviv: Israel has reported three new cases of children infected with polio, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The cases were detected during an epidemiological investigation after an eight-year-old boy from northern Israel tested positive for the virus earlier this week, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.

The Ministry added that the three children, who were in close contact with the boy, currently have no clinical symptoms.

A polio outbreak occurred in March 2022 in Israel with the detection of nine cases, prompting the Ministry to conduct an extensive vaccination campaign for people aged 17 and under.

In July, it announced that the spread of the virus had stopped, but the virus was discovered again in recent months in sewage systems across the country.

The Ministry noted that there are currently more than 150,000 children in Israel who have not been vaccinated against the virus.

The infectious polio disease spreads rapidly and can cause paralysis and, on rare occasions, even death.

(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

This post was last modified on March 3, 2023 2:26 pm

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Indo-Asian News Service

Indo-Asian News Service or IANS is a private Indian news agency. It was founded in 1986 by Indian American publisher Gopal Raju as the "India Abroad News Service" and later renamed. The service reports news, views and analysis from the subcontinent about the country, across a wide range of subjects.

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