The polio outbreak that struck the Horn of Africa affected 217 people in the three countries and now there are reports of an additional case of wild poliovirus 1 (WPV-1) in Somalia, the 6th case (5 in Somalia and one in Ethiopia) in the outbreak region in 2014.

Horn of Africa Image/Public domain image/ Lexicon at the English Wikipedia project
Horn of Africa
Image/Public domain image/ Lexicon at the English Wikipedia project

This is the first case to be found in the Hobyo district of Mudug province.

Activities are being initiated to address the spread of WPV-1 in Somalia, with an increased focus on accessing pastoral communities, using satellite imagery for micro-planning.

In addition, Pakistan saw a surge in polio cases during the previous week, which are due to a backlog in the laboratory. For more infectious disease news and information, visit and “like” the Infectious Disease News Facebook page

21 new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases were reported in the past week. Of these, 17 are from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) (2 from North Waziristan, 4 from South Waziristan and 11 from Khyber agency) and 4 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (1 from Tank (the first case from this district for 2014), 2 from Bannu, and 1 from Lakki Marwat). This brings the total number of polio cases in 2014 to 138 compared to 28 in 2013 by this date.