The World Health Organization says a small child on the Indonesian island of Java has been diagnosed with polio, Indonesia's first confirmed case of the disease since 1995.
The discovery has prompted Jakarta to begin a campaign to vaccinate five million children in the region. WHO officials say the child was infected with a strain of the polio virus that can be traced to northern Nigeria.
An immunization boycott there in 2003 was triggered by rumors the polio vaccine was contaminated in a plot by Western nations to sterilize Muslim girls or spread AIDS. The strain has since spread across 16 countries in Africa and the Middle East.
WHO officials say the virus most likely entered Indonesia with a migrant worker or a Muslim pilgrim who traveled to Mecca in January.
Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.
