Sharjah24 - Reuters: Ukraine is running low on critical medical supplies and has had to halt urgent efforts to curb a polio outbreak since Russia invaded the country, public health experts say.

Medical needs are already acute, with the World Health Organization warning on Sunday that oxygen supplies were running out.

Fears of a wider public health crisis are growing as people flee their homes, health services are interrupted and supplies fail to reach Ukraine, which has also been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said on Monday routine immunisation and outbreak control efforts for polio had been suspended in Ukraine because of the fighting. WHO has received reports that coronavirus vaccination campaigns have also been put on hold in many parts of the country, he said.

Last October, Ukraine found the first polio case in Europe for five years - a 17-month old toddler who was paralysed - and another case involving paralysis was found in January.

Nineteen more children have been identified with the vaccine-derived form of polio but without symptoms of paralysis.