A polio outbreak occurred at the venue of the 30th SEA Games.
The polio outbreak in the Philippines during the 30th SEA Games has raised concerns about the risk of athletes traveling to the affected area contracting the disease and bringing it back home.
The Department of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health, announced that Vietnam's national focal point for implementing the International Health Regulations (IHR) has received information from the World Health Organization (WHO) stating that the Philippines – where the 30th SEA Games are taking place – has recorded an outbreak of polio after 19 years of eradication in the country.
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| Children need to be vaccinated against polio to prevent a resurgence of the disease. Photo: Shutterstock. |
Accordingly, from September 2019 to the present, the Philippines has recorded 8 cases of polio. To respond to the epidemic, since October 2019, the Philippines has implemented a large-scale nationwide polio vaccination campaign for all children under 5 years old, while also declaring an epidemic, regularly updating information on the disease, and issuing recommendations on disease prevention for residents and tourists...
The head of the Department of Preventive Medicine also stated that the WHO assesses the risk of international spread of polio as low, but more new cases may be detected in the Philippines.
Regarding the risk of polio infection for Vietnamese athletes and spectators competing and cheering at the ongoing SEA Games in the Philippines, Professor Nguyen Van Kinh, Chairman of the Vietnam Infectious Diseases Association, stated that polio is an acute viral infection transmitted through the digestive tract, but athletes and spectators should not be overly worried. Polio primarily affects young children who have not been vaccinated or have not received the full dose; it rarely affects adults as most adults already have immunity.
Because the virus primarily affects young children, during the outbreak in the Philippines, families should prevent young children from entering affected areas. "In cases of polio virus infection, the typical symptom is acute flaccid paralysis. Once inside the body, the virus travels to the lymph nodes, invades the central nervous system, and damages the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord and motor neurons of the cerebral cortex," Professor Kính noted.
