Polio has been reported in Venezuela, a crisis-wracked country where the disease had been eradicated decades ago, the Pan-American Health Organization reports.
The organization said the child had no history of vaccination and lives in an under-immunized extremely impoverished Delta Amacuro state.
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a crippling childhood disease caused by the poliovirus, and preventable through immunization.
Doctor Jose Felix Oletta, a former Minister of Health, told AFP that the last case of acute poliomyelitis in Venezuela was reported in 1989.
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Update: Deadly polio has been reported in Venezuela for the first time in nearly 30 years, authorities reveal (Daily Mail)
WNU Editor: I know someone who contracted polio when she was a child 50 years ago .... it is an unbelievably nasty disease that should have been eradicated by now. But it is not, and this decision by the health authorities in President Nicolas Maduro's government to take more than a month to notify PAHO (Pan-American Health Organization) that it had identified the virus is inexcusable. Especially in view of the fact that international health regulations require it to do so within 24 hours. The solution is to now commence a massive polio vaccination drive .... but when one looks at the state that Venezuela is in now .... I am doubtful that it can be implemented quickly and effectively.
