A polio outbreak in Pakistan has spread to China

A polio outbreak in Pakistan has spread to China, killing one person and infecting nine others, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).


Chinese authorities confirmed that the Wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) that infected 84 people in Pakistan is the same one that killed one person in the prefectures of Hotan and Bazhou in China's western Xinjiang province. The virus also downed nine others, including six children under 3 years.

The last polio outbreak in China occurred in 1999. A man was infected with the polio virus after arriving from India.

Polio infection causes paralysis, difficulty in breathing and death. The virus is transmitted through contaminated food and water.

China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention has sent a team of doctors to Xinjiang to treat the infected people.

The health ministry, meanwhile, said vaccinations against poliomyelitis will also be conducted in the near future.

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