By KEVIN KELLEY, New York

The Ministry of Health is working with United Nations agencies to stem a polio outbreak in the Dadaab refugee complex, the UN announced on Friday.

Five cases of the highly infectious disease have been confirmed in the past two weeks among the estimated 424,000 Somalis living in Dadaab.

Kenyan health workers are conducting a vaccination campaign in areas of Northeastern Province near the camp while an emergency team from the World Health Organisation is helping inoculate thousands of children in Dadaab.

Health workers are aiming to vaccinate every resident of Dadaab within the next couple of months, the UN said.

A case of polio has recently been reported in Mogadishu, and there are fears about a possible outbreak in south central Somalia, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said on Friday.

In that area controlled by al-Shabaab insurgents, "immunisation activities have not taken place for the last three years because of the security situation," the UN agency reported.

The polio virus, which can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours, has been eliminated from many developing countries in recent years.