The Armenian Ministry of Health is urging all Syrian Armenians under 15 who have migrated to Armenia in the past month get a polio vaccination.

The World Health Organization said this week that there has been an outbreak of the potentially deadly disease polio in Syria.

The WHO confirmed 10 cases of polio in young children, the first time in 14 years that the disease has been found there.

Before the war began in 2011, approximately 95 percent of children were vaccinated against polio, but now it's thought that 500,000 children have not been immunized.

The infection, which is spread through dirty water and spreads easily from person to person, attacks the body, making sufferers disabled and, in the worst cases, paralyzed.

The polio outbreak in Syria is similar to previous resurgences in countries such as Sudan and Colombia, where the once eliminated virus exploited opportunities offered by conflict and poverty to find its way back in.
The WHO is planning to launch an immunization campaign in Syria's neighboring countries, with a special emphasis on refugees.