The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday announced it is investigating reports of suspected polio cases among Somali refugees living in camps in Ethiopia and three cases in the surrounding community.

“The immediate priority is to confirm the outbreak, and samples have been collected and sent to Addis Ababa for laboratory confirmation,” said Melissa Fleming, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees.

UNHCR is working with the Ethiopian ministry of health, the World Health Organization, the UN Children’s Fund and other health partners to coordinate the response in the five refugee camps where the cases were reported.

“Once the strain of virus is identified, the appropriate vaccine will be dispatched to Dollo Ado for a mass vaccination campaign in the camps and surrounding communities,” she said.

A nationwide anti-polio campaign is scheduled to begin Jan. 27. It will now be expanded to include all refugee camps.

A highly infectious disease caused by a virus, polio invades the nervous system and leads to irreversible paralysis in one out of 200 cases. Only three countries – Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan – remain polio-endemic today, and the number of cases has declined drastically in the past 25 years.

“As the polio virus is transmitted through contaminated food and water, our partners providing water and sanitation are being engaged to ensure delivery of adequate services,” she added.

According to UNHCR, some 143,000 Somalis are currently sheltered in five Ethiopian camps in Dollo Ado, which is now the second largest refugee settlement in the Horn of Africa.

Almost one million Somalis live as refugees in the region while another 1.36 million are internally displaced.

(Mike McGuire is a former honorary national vice president of the World Federalist Association and a former member of the board of directors of its San Francisco chapter.