Burundi officials detect polio outbreak linked to vaccine

By MARIA CHENG
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Health officials in Burundi have declared an outbreak of polio linked to the vaccine, the first time the paralytic disease has been detected in the east African country for more than three decades. The epidemic is yet another setback for the global effort to wipe out polio, which first began in 1980 and initially aimed to eradicate the disease by 2000. The Burundi government declared the polio outbreak to be a national public health emergency and plans to start an immunization campaign within weeks, aimed at protecting all children up to age seven.