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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A polio outbreak that has sickened 226 Indonesians — mostly children — could worsen in the coming months and spread to neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
But the U.N. health agency also expressed confidence that next week's nationwide campaign to vaccinate all children under 5 should halt the spread of the crippling disease.
"Polio is not only an issue in Indonesia ... but it's an international issue," said Dr. David Heymann, who heads WHO's worldwide polio eradication campaign. "That virus, just as it came here from the African continent, could now go from here to a neighboring country and become implanted in that country if protection rates for polio were low."
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