Health authorities are targeting to vaccinate over 2 million children-with polio vaccine after Malawi registered its first case in three decades.
Last week, the ministry of health declared polio a public health emergency- following confirmation of a polio case in Lilongwe.
Speaking to MIJ Online, Adrian Chikumbe, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said the ministry is currently mobilizing resources for the vaccination exercise.
At the moment, Government has declared polio a public health emergency.
Currently, reports suggest that the strain found in the child in Lilongwe has been linked to one circulating in Pakistan where the virus remains endemic, the World Health Organization said in a statement on Thursday.
Africa was declared free of wild polio in August 2020, and the World Health Office said that the new case did not affect that status.
WHO said it was giving its assistance to the health authorities in Malawi, carrying out a risk assessment and outbreak response and deploying the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI) rapid response team. It is also stepping up supplemental immunisation.
“The last case of wild polio virus in Africa was identified in northern Nigeria in 2016 and globally there were only five cases in 2021. Any case of wild polio virus is a significant event and we will mobilize all resources to support the country’s response,” said Dr Modjirom Ndoutabe, polio coordinator in the WHO Regional Office for Africa.