Polio outbreak in Syria spreads to at least 22, according to recent reports. Of those 22, most are babies and toddlers.

The World Health Organization reported the latest numbers since news broke that there was a polio outbreak in Syria. It was the first outbreak of the disease there in 14 years. Syria's Health Ministry began an immunisation drive on Thursday.

Approximately 95% of the children in Syria were vaccinated against Polio prior to a civil war in Syria in 2011. An outbreak has come two years later.

"There is a cluster of 22 acute flaccid paralysis cases that is being investigated in that area," WHO spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer told Reuters. "Everybody is treating this as an outbreak and is in outbreak response mode."

WHO expects final laboratory confirmations on 20 of those reported to have polio. The other two have already been confirmed.

There are more than 100,000 children, all under age five, now at risk of polio in Deir Ezzor province alone, which has been caught in fierce battles between Syrian government forces and opposition fighters, according to BBC.

Polio is an acute, viral, infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route. Although approximately 90% of polio infections cause no symptoms at all, affected individuals can exhibit a range of symptoms if the virus enters the blood stream. In about 1% of cases, the virus enters the central nervous system, preferentially infecting and destroying motor neurons, leading to muscle weakness and acute flaccid paralysis.