An outbreak of wild polio virus began two years after the onset of the civil war in Syria and subsequently spread to Iraq, causing a total of 38 cases (36 in Syria). Factors leading to the outbreak included a decline in polio surveillance and in polio vaccination coverage (from 83% for 3 doses of oral polio vaccine pre-war in Syria to 47-52%).
Outbreaks
Collapse of primary healthcare during humanitarian emergencies can lead to infectious disease outbreaks in neighboring areas
The humanitarian emergency in Venezuela, and resulting collapse of its primary health care infrastructure, has caused measles and diphtheria to reemerge — disproportionately affecting indigenous populations — and spread to neighboring countries. This sets the stage for the potential reemergence of polio. The re-establishment of measles as an endemic disease in Venezuela (with >5,500 confirmed cases) and its spread to neighboring countries threaten the measles-free status.
A measles outbreak can be costly for national governments
A measles outbreak in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in 2014, causing nearly 400 confirmed cases, cost nearly US$4 million (around US$10,000 per case), 88% of which was for a mass vaccination campaign, outbreak investigations, and other containment costs. While the U.S. government covered 2/3 of the costs, the economic burden to FSM — in labor and other costs of containing the outbreak, the direct costs of illness, and productivity losses — were the equivalent of the country’s entire education budget for one year.
Humanitarian emergencies often lead to infectious disease outbreaks, highlighting the importance of immunization
In a study of the overlap between complex humanitarian emergencies and disease outbreaks, researchers found that more than 40% of complex emergencies that occurred between 2005-2014 were associated with an outbreak of infectious disease, with a high likelihood that the outbreak was vaccine-preventable.