The World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that Syria has gone a year without a reported case of polio following a massive immunization campaign in the country and the region.
The WHO said that the outbreak seems to have been brought under controlâ€‌ in Syria after a push to immunize millions of children across the Middle East.
It's a very encouraging sign that Syria's returning to a polio-free status,‌ Chris Maher, the WHO polio eradication manager, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Maher said that the landmark did not guarantee that Syria is polio-free, but it does suggest that the mass immunization had been successful.
To date, 27 million children have been immunized in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and the Palestinian territories, the WHO said.
According to Maher, between 2.7 and three million children in Syria had been immunized during the campaign in areas under rebel, government, and jihadist control.
We were consistently reaching 85 percent of kids or more in Syria in the last 12 months,‌ Maher said.