Fifteen new
cases of polio have been confirmed in Syria, including a child who
may have caught the disease in Raqqa, the World Health Organization
said on Tuesday.
Aid workers
are unable to vaccinate the population in and around Raqqa, a city
held by Islamic State militants and a target of US-led airstrikes.
The WHO reported two polio cases in an area of Syria partly held by
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.
WHO
spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told a UN briefing on Tuesday 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.
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