| ■ Eastern Africa polio-free, but cases found in Russia | 2010.08.20 |
| Eastern Africa is free of polio again, with four countries -- Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda -- having reported no cases of the crippling disease for more than a year, U.N. and other aid agencies said Friday. But the virus appears to have spread from Tajikistan, where it has paralyzed 437 children since April, to infect 6 ethnic Tajiks in Russia, according to the World Health Organization. "It was detected in a few individuals in Russia in Tajik communities. An investigation is going on, we don't know where infection took place," WHO spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer told Reuters. Russia's last confirmed case of polio was in 1996, but if the investigation shows the victims were infected in Tajikistan, they would be classified as part of the epidemic there, he said. |