The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced on Monday that it had convened emergency talks on polio after cases were discovered in Afghanistan, Iraq and Equatorial Guinea.

The UN health agency said that it was considering whether to declare the new spread of polio a “public health emergency of international concern” that could require travel restrictions.

Polio mainly affects children under the age of five and has come close to being beaten as the result of a 25-year effort.

The number of recorded cases has fallen from 350,000 in 1988 to 406 in 2013.

Polio is now endemic in only three countries, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan, down from 125 countries in 1988.

“However, wild polio virus continues to spread internationally from both endemic and reinfected countries,” the WHO said.

“Between January and April 2014, three polio virus importation events have been detected in Asia, the Middle East and central Africa.”