According to a Channel 1 News report, three children from the Bedouin community of Tel Sheva and a fourth southern district child are feared to have contracted polio.

Health Ministry officials have been urging parents to have all children under six vaccinated after traces of polio were detected in Beersheva area sewers. In addition, traces of the virus were found recently in the Sharon Region sewage system. The system is connected to the Lev HaSharon, Kalansua, Jaljulia, Kfar Bara and Choreshim communities.

Health officials in the southern district in the past two weeks conducted tests on 1,700 stool samples from adults and children from areas in which polio was detected in the sewage system. Additional testing is being conducted for those people in whose stool samples tested positive. Health officials explain the children may be carrying the illness but remain asymptomatic.

Thousands of samples are being studied as well to determine how many children up the age of eight carry the virus.

If these cases are confirmed, and if it is established that a large population carries the virus, the ministry is likely to give an additional vaccine to an estimated 150,000 children under the age of eight. A decision is expected within approximately two weeks.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)