Chinese health authorities have vaccinated more than 9 million people in a far western region against polio amid an outbreak of the disease that has paralyzed 17 people and killed one of them. China had been free for 11 years of the paralytic disease that mostly hits children before the first few cases were reported in July in Hotan prefecture in Xinjiang. The outbreak has exposed gaps in vaccination coverage in the remote region where access to quality health services is poor. The World Health Organization says the polio strain detected in China had traveled from Pakistan, which borders Xinjiang and is one of four countries where the disease remains endemic. The other countries are India, Afghanistan and Nigeria. “Overall, China, including in Xinjiang province, has good routine immunization coverage,” said Oliver Rosenbauer, a press officer for the WHO's polio eradication drive in Geneva said Tuesday. But, he added, the virus has “a knack of finding any susceptible groups. Any chink in your armor, this virus is able to find.” “It underscores the ongoing risk that endemic transmission continues to pose everywhere,” Rosenbauer said. The Xinjiang Health Bureau said in a report on its website that the first round of vaccinations was administered last month over three periods to cover children and people aged 15 to 39 in Hotan and surrounding areas. It said this totals more than 9.3 million people.
