Polio’s Return After Near Eradication Prompts a Global Health Warning --- Alarmed by the spread of polio to several fragile countries, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency on Monday for only the second time since regulations permitting it to do so were adopted in 2007. -- Just two years ago — after a 25-year campaign that vaccinated billions of children — the paralyzing virus was near eradication; now health officials say that goal could evaporate if swift action is not taken. -- Pakistan, Syria and Cameroon have recently allowed the virus to spread — to Afghanistan, Iraq and Equatorial Guinea, respectively — and should take extraordinary measures to stop it, the health organization said. -- “Things are going in the wrong direction and have to get back on track before something terrible happens,” said Gregory Hartl, a W.H.O. spokesman. “So we’re saying to the Pakistanis, the Syrians and the Cameroonians, ‘You’ve really got to get your acts together.' ” -- The declaration, which effectively imposes travel restrictions on the three countries, represented a newly aggressive stance by the health organization. In the past, it has often bent to pressure from member states demanding no consequences even as epidemics raged inside their borders and sometimes slipped over them. -- “This is a fundamental shift in the program,” said Dr. Bruce Aylward, the organization’s chief of polio eradication. “This is the countries of the world signaling that they will no longer tolerate the spread of the virus from the countries that aren’t finished.” -- The emergency was declared though the total number of known cases this year is still relatively small: 68 as of April 30, compared with 24 by that date last year. -- What most alarmed experts, Mr. Hartl said, was that the virus was on the move during what is normally the low transmission season from January to April. -- “What we don’t want is cases moving into places like the Central African Republic, South Sudan or the Ukraine,” said Rebecca M. Martin, director of global immunization for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has provided money and expertise to the eradication campaign since it began in 1988. - NYTimes, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/health/world-health-organization-polio-health-emergency.html