Two children have been paralyzed in the first polio outbreaks in Europe for five years. One child was four years old and the other was ten months old when they began exhibiting paralysis.

The outbreaks both occurred in Ukraine, where the risk of contracting polio is particularly high since thevaccine coverage is limited.

"50% of children are inadequately vaccinated, and they're now at risk of contracting this disease, and that's why it's very critical to rapidly and fully implement an outbreak response in the country," Oliver Rosenbauer, a member of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative from the World Health Organization (WHO), told IFLScience. An outbreak response will involve vaccinating possibly millions of children in a very short space of time.

There is no cure for polio and so the only way to prevent it is through extensive and thorough vaccination. These new cases arose due to inadequate vaccination in the Zakarpatskaya oblast in south-western Ukraine. But even vaccination itself can sometimes lead to an outbreak.

The virus spreading across borders is also of concern. However, in neighboring countries, for example Poland, they have relatively high levels of vaccination cover and vigilant border control. "The chances, I think, are relatively low that it travels internationally, or would cause outbreaks internationally, but I would not rule it out," Rosenbauer concluded.

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