Lilongwe - Medics will vaccinate about 2.9 million children against polio in Malawi, the United Nations (UN) said on Thursday, after a three-year-old girl fell sick in the capital, with Africa's first case of wild polio virus, in more than five years.
The southern African country declared a polio outbreak two weeks ago, after tests confirmed the infection and showed the strain was linked to one circulating in Pakistan, where it is still endemic.
“The resurgence of the wild polio virus in Malawi ... is cause for serious concern,” said Rudolf Schwenk, head of the UN children's agency UNICEF in Malawi, in a statement.
“Vaccination is the only way to protect the children of Malawi from this crippling disease, which is highly infectious,” said Schwenk.
Polio is a highly infectious disease that invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis within hours. While there is no cure, it can be prevented by a vaccine, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
UNICEF Malawi said it will procure and distribute 6.9 million polio vaccine doses for the children, all of them aged under five.
Malawi declared a polio outbreak in mid-February, after a case was detected in a child, in the capital Lilongwe, the first case of wild polio virus in Africa, in more than five years, the WHO said.
Laboratory analysis showed the strain detected in Malawi was linked to one that has been circulating in Pakistan, where it is still endemic, the WHO said in a statement .
“As an imported case from Pakistan, this detection does not affect the African region's wild polio virus-free certification status,” the WHO said.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative said the case in Malawi was in a three-year-old girl, who experienced the onset of paralysis in November last year.
Reuters