A case of polio has been detected in Indonesia, World Health Organization officials said today, indicating that an outbreak spreading from northern Nigeria since 2003 had crossed an ocean and reached the world's fourth-most-populous country.
The virus, found in a village in Java, is most closely related to a strain that was found in Saudi Arabia in December, they said, and the most likely explanation is that it was brought back either by an Indonesian working there or by a pilgrim who went to Mecca in January.
Indonesia has more Muslims than any other nation, and polio is now found almost exclusively in Muslim countries or regions. Many people from northern Nigeria to the Pakistan frontier have resisted getting polio vaccines because of persistent rumors that it is a Western plot to render Muslim girls infertile or to spread AIDS.
At the disease's low point, in early 2003, it was endemic in only six countries: Nigeria, Niger, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.The disease was found in Jidda and Mecca in Saudi Arabia late last year, and polio eradication officials said in February that they feared the annual pilgrimage could spread it around the world.
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