Despite the Vaccine… Polio Returns to Yemen, Infecting 29 Children This Year
Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:
The health office in Taiz Governorate announced today, Friday, that Yemen has recorded about 29 confirmed cases of polio in 2025, a disease that can lead to lifelong paralysis in children if they are not vaccinated.
Taysir Al-Samei, the media official at the office, confirmed that the vaccine is available free of charge in all health facilities across the country and is the only means of prevention.
He added: “Prevention is possible… but what is required is community cooperation and reaching every child who has not yet received the vaccine.”
He also called for redoubling efforts to reach children in remote and deprived areas, stressing that “any delay in vaccination exposes the child to an irreparable risk.”
Reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF indicate that 451 cases of the polio virus have been recorded in Yemen, the majority in Houthi-controlled areas, since the return of the epidemic’s outbreak in the country in 2021.
According to the latest report for this October, “Since 2021, Yemen has recorded 451 cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2),” explaining that the majority of these recorded cases, at 96%, are among children under the age of five, while the remaining 4% are among those above this age.
He added: “As of week 38 of this year, 29 confirmed cases have been reported, including 28 cases in Houthi areas and one case in government areas.”
Last month, the Ministry of Public Health and Population, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched the second round of the polio vaccination campaign in 12 governorates under the control of the Yemeni government, to immunize more than 1.3 million children under the age of five against the virus.
In recent years, a number of viral diseases and epidemics, including polio, have re-emerged, especially in Houthi-controlled areas, as a result of the collapse of the health system and the obstacles placed by the militia against vaccination campaigns.
