Week 2: AWL highligther

File produced at level 10

Within days, DNA sequencing confirmed that the virus had been circulating in the region undetected for about 4 years. The new case was discovered in Monguno district, but the family came from Marte district, as did the family of the Jere case.

"We have to understand why we did not see the virus for 4 years," says Michel Zaffran, director of GPEI at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

True, Borno poses unique challenges to the program, which has long been familiar with working in conflict zones by brokering "days of tranquility" during which vaccinations can occur, for instance, or else conducting "hit and run" operations when there is a lull in the fighting. The strategy has also relied heavily on vaccinating the streams of people who flee the violence. But under Boko Haram "the population is forbidden to leave," Zaffran says. (The three cases detected so far are children whose families somehow managed to escape.)

"We thought surveillance was good enough," Zaffran says%97and overall in Borno state it was. What they missed were the "totally inaccessible" areas where the population had been trapped and was large enough to sustain transmission of the virus. "Are there other places we are blind? We can't exclude that other populations have not moved. What innovative strategies can we use?" he asks. 

Sequencing: bepalen van volgorde base

confirmed: bevestigen

Poses: poseren

Unique challenge: unieke uitdaging

Conflict: conflict

Occur: gebeuren, zich voordoen

Instance: bijvoorbeeld

Conducting: leiden

Strategy: strategie

Relied: rekenen op

Detected: ontdekken

Overall: globaal

Inaccessible: ontoegankelijk

Area: gebied

Sustain: doorstaan

Transmission: transmissie

Exclude: uitsluiten

Innovative: vernieuwend