The estimated mean height of English, German, and Scottish soldiers was 163.6 cm (5 ft 4+1⁄2 in) – 165.9 cm (5 ft 5+1⁄2 in) for the period as a whole, while that of Irish was 167.9 cm (5 ft 6 in). The average height of male slaves and convicts in North America was 171 cm (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in).The average height of Americans and Europeans decreased during periods of rapid industrialization, possibly due to rapid population growth and broad decreases in economic status. This has become known as the early-industrial growth puzzle in the U.S. context the Antebellum Puzzle. In England during the early nineteenth century, the difference between the average height of English upper-class youth (students of Sandhurst Military Academy) and English working-class youth (Marine Society boys) reached 22 cm (8+1⁄2 in), the highest that has been observed.Data derived from burials show that before 1850, the mean stature of males and females in Leiden, The Netherlands was respectively 167.7 cm (5 ft 6 in) and 156.7 cm (5 ft 1+1⁄2 in). The average height of 19-year-old Dutch orphans in 1865 was 160 cm (5 ft 3 in).According to a study by J.W. Drukker and Vincent Tassenaar, the average height of a Dutch person decreased from 1830 to 1857, even while Dutch real GNP per capita was growing at an average rate of more than 0.5% per year. The worst decline was in urban areas that in 1847, the urban height penalty was 2.5 cm (0.98 in).
Both outbreaks were found to be linked instances of vaccine-derived poliomyelitis. Europe
Europe was declared polio-free in 2002. Southeast Asia
The last case of polio in the region was in India (part of the WHOs South-East Asia Region) in January 2011. Since January 2011, there have been no reported cases of the wild polio infections in India, and in February 2012 the country was taken off the WHO list of polio endemic countries.On 27 March 2014, the WHO announced the eradication of poliomyelitis in the South-East Asia Region, which includes eleven countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. With the addition of this region, 80 per cent of the world population was considered to be living in polio-free regions. Middle East
In Syria difficulties in executing immunization programs in the ongoing civil war led to a return of polio, probably in 2012, acknowledged by the WHO in 2013. 15 cases were confirmed among children in Syria between October and November 2013 in Deir Ezzor. Later, two more cases, one each in rural Damascus and Aleppo, were identified. It was the first outbreak in Syria since 1999. Doctors and international public health agencies report more than 90 cases of polio in Syria, with fears of contagion in rebel areas from lack of sanitation and safe-water services. A vaccination campaign in Syria operated literally under fire and led to the deaths of several vaccinators, but returned vaccination coverage to pre-war levels.An outbreak of vaccine-derived polio was confirmed in 2017 in eastern Syria.