When Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General of WHO, took to the podium to brief 22 Middle Eastern ministers of health on polio eradication, he did something few could have anticipated—he ripped up their plan for polio control. That morning, on Oct 29, the Minister of Health of Syria had reported that ten cases of polio had been virologically confirmed; 12 other suspected cases were awaiting confirmation. It was the first outbreak in the country for 14 years, and it signified a serious threat to the entire region.
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