Description of the situation
One case of poliomyelitis has been reported in Mogadishu, Somalia where a 15-month old girl had onset of paralysis on 12 July 2005. Genetic sequencing is ongoing to determine the origin of the virus. Somalia had been polio-free since 2002.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative - spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and UNICEF - today launched an ambitious new series of polio immunization campaigns to prevent the re-establishment of the disease in the Horn of Africa.