Refugee Is Nation’s First Polio Case in 22 Years

Kenya has reported its first new polio case in more than two decades with the infection of a 3-year-old Somalian refugee, a new setback in the global effort to eradicate the disease, the United Nations said.

The first documented polio infection in 22 years in Kenya makes the East African nation the 26th country to have been re-infected since a 2003 vaccine boycott by hard-line Nigerian Islamic clerics, who claimed the inoculations were part of a U.S.-led plot to render Muslims infertile.

Most of the clerics dropped their boycott after tests on the vaccine showed no evidence of tampering, but by then the disease had begun spreading out of Nigeria.