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06/23/2004:

"Polio Reaches Sudan's Conflict-Ridden Darfur"

NAIROBI, 23 Jun 2004 (IRIN) - Epidemiologists warned on Tuesday that west and central Africa were on the brink of "the largest polio epidemic in recent years", as confirmation was received that the Darfur region of western Sudan had been reinfected.

A five-year old child in Darfur was on Monday confirmed to have been paralysed by the same polio virus that was endemic to northern Nigeria, Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO) told IRIN. The virus had spread from Nigeria into Chad, which was reinfected in 2003, and into western Sudan, he added. Full Article