Fears Polio Spreading in Southeast Asia as Malaysia Case Emerges
A community health worker shows a vial of an oral polio vaccine in Manila, Philippines.
Photographer: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
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Malaysia has confirmed its first case of polio in almost three decades, sparking fears that the disease is spreading across the region after the Philippines declared an epidemic in September.
A test by the World Health Organization found that the virus, detected in a three-month-old boy from the eastern state of Sabah, is linked to the one found in the Philippines, according to Malaysia’s health ministry. The last polio case in Malaysia was in 1992. In 2000, the country had declared itself free of the crippling and potentially fatal disease.