The ministry of health has announced that the country has registered a case of polio in Lilongwe, the first in decades.
The case has also come after five years across Africa.
Speaking to MIJ Online, Adrian Chikumbe, Spokesperson in the ministry of health has said the ministry has now intensified efforts to control the spread.
Chikumbe has also said government is encouraging sanitation and cleanliness.
‘’The ministry is asking people to continue observing good personal hygiene practice.’’ He said.
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.
