Ceasefires plea as Syria hit by polio outbreak

A World Health Organisation spokesman said it is investigating another 12 cases showing symptoms, adding: “The risk is high of spread across the region.”

The Syrian conflict, which began as a largely peaceful uprising against President Bashar Assad in March 2011, has triggered a humanitarian crisis on a massive scale, costing more than 100,000 lives, driving nearly seven million more people from their homes and devastating cities and towns.

The UN has warned that diseases are spreading because of lack of access to basic hygiene and vaccinations.

Unicef executive director Anthony Lake urged warring sides in the country to grant health workers access to over 500,000 children who are in immediate need of vaccination.

He said the polio outbreak “now is not only a desperate issue for Syria, but it becomes part of the global issue as well”.

And Save the Children said “vaccination ceasefires” were needed to prevent the outbreak turning into an epidemic which threatens children across the Middle East. Such ceasefires have previously been carried out successfully in Afghanistan, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, it said.