The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is urging the public to vaccinate their children against polio, as the threat of poliovirus is considered high this year.
The WHO has announced, according to the CDC, that wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) has said that it considers the risk of international spread of the virus from Israel to be high.
The CDC also pointed out that Somalia and several other countries in East Africa are experiencing polio outbreaks this year, with South Sudan recently reporting the first three cases of WPV1 infection since 2009.
Taiwan has been declared by the WHO as a polio-free region since 2000, but the threat of poliovirus still remains. People who have not been fully vaccinated against the virus are at particularly high risk of infection.
Parents are advised to take the children to receive a total of five polio vaccination doses at the ages of two months, four months, six months, 18 months and finally at seven years (first grade in elementary school). Those who plan to travel to polio-affected regions are also advised by the agency to visit travel clinics for evaluation or immunization before the trip and to avoid bringing unvaccinated children to the regions.
The CDC says polio is an infectious disease and more than 95 percent of sufferers exhibit no, or no obvious, symptoms.