UN dubs Middle East polio outbreak ‘greatest challenge in history’

          
Polio is spreading through war-torn countries like Syria and Iraq, and the challenges to limit the spread are great, according to the UN.          

The three-year old civil war in Syria, which has killed over 150,000, has come to affect the infants and children of the region in a new way: the spread of infectious diseases.           

With the deterioration of the government’s ability to ensure even rudimentary services, the vaccination of infants can no longer be performed reliably.              Hence, starting last summer, cases of measles and polio among unvaccinated children were reported in Syria.           

Also, a case of polio has been recently diagnosed in Iraq and many other countries are certain to follow.              

The UN has considered this "the greatest polio-related challenge in history".         

Unfortunately, wars not only destroy the provision of vaccination, but also the electricity needed to maintain the refrigerators the vaccine is stored in, as well as the plumbing that provides clean, non-polio contaminated water to drink.              

The new polio threat is a major and predictable fallout of war, just like shrapnel injuries and broken families.                 

The vision of a child permanently crippled by a preventable disease may become the most durable image of the Syrian civil war, irrefutable evidence not just of ancient, geologic hatreds but also of a truly failed government.