More than 20 people have reportedly been diagnosed with polio in Syria, which would mark the first outbreak of the disease in about 14 years, Reuters reported.

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed Thursday that there had been 22 cases of polio, although they have yet to be confirmed. While not yet positive the diseases are cases of polio, many patients have been diagnosed with acute flaccid paralysis, a key symptom.

WHO spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer said at least 100,000 children under the age of five in the Deir al-Zor providence are at risk of contracting polio.

"The main concern right now is to quickly launch an immunization response," Rosenbauer said. "Everybody is treating this as an outbreak (of polio) and is in outbreak response mode."

Vaccination campaigns are being planned across Syria from November but the logistics were still being discussed, he said. Despite lacking confirmation that the outbreak is of the crippling disease, many are treating it as such.

The first appearance of polio in Syria was documented in 1999. Rosenbauer said the tests are "very, very likely" to confirm the disease outbreak is polio. The disease is known to cause crippling paralysis within hours of entering the system.

According to CNN, the government has launched a polio defensive by urging people to get vaccinated. WHO is also working with government officials in these efforts.

"All humanitarian staff missions and convoys continue to require written approval," Valerie Amos, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, said in an address to the U.N. Security Council. "There is simply no reason why humanitarian staff, whose only interest is to help those in desperate need, have not been granted visas to scale up our operations."

The potential outbreak is further complicated by the ongoing Syrian civil war. With thousands of refugees fleeing due to the war, immunization efforts can become difficult. What may provide some beacon of hope in containing the polio outbreak is that Syria had an exceptional immunization rate prior to the start of the war.