The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement that health officials in Burundi on Friday declared an outbreak of the polio virus after confirming eight cases, the first outbreak of its kind in three decades.
The organization said that the confirmed cases are a four-year-old child who did not receive the vaccine against the disease, and two other children who had contact with him in Isaly region, western Burundi.
“In addition, five environmental monitoring samples of wastewater confirmed the presence of poliovirus type 2,” she added.
Poliovirus type 2 infection can occur when the weakened strain of the virus found in the oral polio vaccine (OPV) spreads among a population that has not been immunized for a long time.
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