Volunteers Mount Vaccine Drive After Polio Crops Up in Syria

     Thousands of volunteers recruited and deployed by nonprofit groups have inoculated some 1.4 million children in rebel-held parts of Syria this year, braving shelling and air strikes to combat the disease after an outbreak in October, reports The Washington Post.
     A handful of groups active in Syria, united as the ad hoc Polio Control Task Force, won cooperation from opposition fighters to orchestrate the vaccine campaign in the northern part of the country, to which UNICEF and other global aid agencies have had limited access. The effort is supported by a patchwork of local charities, international aid groups, and foreign governments.
     Polio had not been seen in Syria for 15 years before last fall’s outbreak.  There have been no confirmed cases in nearly five months. Four volunteers have been killed during the campaign.