Israel launched a polio booster campaign, offering additional vaccination for children under the age of nine, reports ABC News.  Recently, a strain of the virus was found in sewage in southern Israel, causing concerns about public health.  The strain is thought to have originated in Egypt, though experts have not confirmed the source.  Fortunately, there have been no clinical cases to date, but there are some children that have been identified as carriers of the virus in Israel.

According to the Times of Israel, the campaign, which started on Sunday, has already vaccinated 30,000 children.  The Ministry of Health is concerned about this becoming a rapidly spreading public health crisis.  In response, this campaign aims to vaccinate one million children and has already ordered the requisite doses to do so.  The Ministry of Health plans to carry out the vaccination campaign over the course of 60 days.

Poliomyelitis, or polio for short, is a viral disease that affects the nervous system, reports the New York Times.  Polio is caused by the poliovirus, which spreads through person-to-person contact, contact with infected phlegm or mucus, and contact with infected feces.  Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic, but has been largely eradicated after the development of polio vaccines.  Now, polio is endemic only to a few countries in Africa and Asia.

According to MedlinePlus, the majority of people with polio do not have symptoms.  Those that do will likely suffer flu-like symptoms.  Severe cases result in paralysis that cannot be reversed.  Polio may be fatal.  Individuals that have had polio in the past may later develop post-polio syndrome, which includes tiredness, muscle weakness, and pain in joints and muscles.  There is currently no cure for post-polio syndrome.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative tracks worldwide cases of polio in endemic and non-endemic countries.  In the endemic countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, there have been 71 cases to date in 2013.  In comparison, there were 217 cases in endemic countries in 2012.  However, in the non-endemic countries of Somalia and Kenya, there have been 110 cases to date.  In 2012, there were 6 cases in Niger and Chad, the only non-endemic countries to have polio cases that year.

The Washington Post reports that there has been an “explosive outbreak” of the disease in Somalia and in a Kenyan refugee camp filled with Somalis.  Health officials have limited access to children in areas of Somalia controlled by an armed Islamist group.  Since Somalia was removed from the list of endemic countries in 2001, it has had two outbreaks of polio.