Signs of desperation from a beleaguered populace in Syria:  A paralyzing violence once believed to have been eradicated is popping up throughout the country; And a town under siege writes an open letter to the world, pleading for its life.

“Save us from death,” read the letter from people in Mouadamiya, a rebel-held village southwest of Damascus.

“For nearly one year, the city of Mouadamiya has been under siege with no access to food, electricity, medicine, communications, and fuel,” according to the letter distributed by the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC), which added that nearly 12,000 people face starvation and death in Mouadamiya.  About 90 percent of Mouadamiya has been destroyed, few doctors remained, and residents were eating “leaves of trees”.

Around Syria, The World Health Organization (WHO) says health workers are reporting increasing cases of acute flaccid paralysis – a telltale sign of polio.  A lab in Dmascus confirms that at least two of the cases are tied to the poliovirus.

“With the civil disturbance, vaccination programs are disrupted, so you have a susceptible population in Syria now,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert and chair of prevention at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

“Then people who carry the virus in their intestinal tracts can transmit it, either person-to-person or through contaminated water systems.”