With the recent discovery of a new case of polio in an infant in Iraq, the United Nations and its partners—warning that the crippling virus still poses a threat to children across the Middle East—have re-launched a huge vaccination campaign in Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, seeking to reach more than 20 million children this week. "The recent detection of a polio case in Iraq after a 14-year absence is a reminder of the risk currently facing children throughout the region," said Maria Calivis, the regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF). "It is now even more imperative to boost routine immunizations to reach every child multiple times and do whatever we can to vaccinate children we could not reach in previous rounds. That's the only way we will prevent this outbreak from spreading further," Calivis said.
