Since May 1999, 86 cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) have been reported in Iraq. Sixteen cases with onset during May-July have been confirmed as paralytic poliomyelitis by isolation of wild poliovirus type 1; the remaining cases are either negative, pending virus isolation (n=10), or positive for type 1 poliovirus with intratypic differentiation pending (n=nine). The first confirmed case occurred in a person residing in Ninevah governorate in the northern part of the country; subsequently, confirmed cases were reported from nine of the 18 governorates in Iraq, suggesting widespread transmission of poliovirus. Before this outbreak, the last confirmed cases of wild polioviruses occurred in Iraq during April-May 1997.
All Keywords