Yemeni health worker Fairouz Sanad lugs a coolbox of polio vaccines from house to house, dripping the liquid into children’s mouths hoping to stop an outbreak of the paralysing virus largely eradicated globally. As the world focussed on COVID-19 this year, the United Nations in August declared an outbreak in Yemen of the virus that can cause permanent paralysis, with children most at risk. Wild polio today is found only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But in populations with low vaccination rates — common in remote parts of war-torn countries like Yemen — the weakened polio virus used in vaccines can circulate and mutate, also causing paralysis. This is called a vaccine-derived polio outbreak. — Reuters
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