WHO affirms discovery of 15 cases of Polio in Syria

GENEVA, June 20 (KUNA) -- Fifteen new cases of polio have been confirmed in Syria's Al-Mayadin area, including a child who may have caught the disease in Raqqa, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday.
Aid workers are unable to vaccinate the population in and around Raqqa, a city held by so-called Islamic State (IS) and a target of US-led airstrikes, WHO Spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said in a statement.
Jasarevic told a UN briefing that 14 more cases had been found in the same area, the Mayadin district of Deir Al-Zor province, and another had come from Raqqa.
Last Sunday, tension escalated as the US military brought down a jet near Raqqa for bombing near US-allied forces on the ground, and Iran launched missiles at so-called Islamic State (IS) targets in eastern Syria - the first time each state has carried out such actions in the multi-sided Syrian war.
WHO reported two polio cases in an area of Syria partly held by so-called Islamic State (IS) earlier this month, the first re-emergence of the virus in Syria since 2014 and a blow for hopes of eradicating the disease globally. (end) ta.mb