WHO 'extremely worried' at prospect of polio, other outbreaks in Gaza

Geneva: A top WHO official said Tuesday he was extremely worried over possible outbreaks in war torn Gaza after poliovirus was detected in the sewag...

Geneva: A top WHO official said Tuesday he was "extremely worried" over possible outbreaks in war-torn Gaza after poliovirus was detected in the sewage, warning that communicable diseases could cause more deaths than injuries.

United Nations agencies said last week that the Global Polio Laboratory Network found vaccine-derived type-2 poliovirus in six environmental samples collected from the sewage in the Gaza Strip on June 23.

Ayadil Saparbekov, the World Health Organization's head of health emergencies in the occupied Palestinian territories, stressed that "we have not yet collected human samples" so it remains unclear if anyone has actually been infected with the virus.

But he acknowledged to reporters in Geneva via video-link from Jerusalem, "I am very much worried".

A type of vaccine against polio -- a crippling and potentially fatal viral disease that mainly affects children under the age of five -- contains small amounts of weakened but live polio which can occasionally cause outbreaks.