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A toddler is vaccinated towards polio. Picture: Paarl Publish
- The case in Malawi was in a three-year-old lady who skilled the onset of paralysis in November final yr.
- It’s sort 1 wild poliovirus (WPV1).
- It’s linked to a pressure detected in Pakistan.
Malawi has declared a polio outbreak after a case was detected in a younger youngster within the capital Lilongwe, the primary case of untamed poliovirus in Africa in additional than 5 years, the World Well being Organisation (WHO) mentioned.
Laboratory evaluation confirmed the pressure detected in Malawi was linked to 1 that has been circulating in Pakistan, the place it’s nonetheless endemic, the WHO mentioned in an announcement .
“As an imported case from Pakistan, this detection doesn’t have an effect on the African area’s wild poliovirus-free certification standing,” the WHO mentioned.
The International Polio Eradication Initiative mentioned the case in Malawi was in a three-year-old lady who skilled the onset of paralysis in November final yr.
Sequencing of the virus performed in February by South Africa’s Nationwide Institute for Communicable Illnesses and the US Centres for Illness Management and Prevention confirmed it as sort 1 wild poliovirus (WPV1).
“Detection of WPV1 exterior the world’s two remaining endemic international locations, Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a severe concern and underscores the significance of prioritising polio immunisation actions,” the International Polio Eradication Initiative mentioned.
The WHO mentioned the African continent was in a position to reply quickly due to a excessive stage of surveillance.
Modjirom Ndoutabe, polio coordinator within the WHO’s regional workplace for Africa mentioned:
The final case of untamed poliovirus in Africa was recognized in northern Nigeria in 2016 and globally there have been solely 5 instances in 2021. Any case of untamed poliovirus is a major occasion and we are going to mobilize all sources to assist the nation’s response.
Polio is a extremely infectious illness that invades the nervous system and might trigger whole paralysis inside hours. Whereas there is no such thing as a treatment, it may be prevented by vaccine, the WHO mentioned.
“The pressure of poliovirus detected (in Malawi) is an in depth match to a pressure final detected in a baby with paralysis within the (Pakistani) province of Sindh in October 2019,” mentioned Hamid Jaffery, Director, Polio Eradication, WHO Japanese Mediterranean Area.
“Till we cease transmission of polio in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the world stays in danger,” he advised Reuters.
Pakistan is amongst international locations the place it is suggested worldwide travellers have polio vaccination certificates.
Pakistan’s well being minister Faisal Sultan advised Reuters the genetic cluster had disappeared from the nation since round 2019.
“Additional evaluation could reveal its hiding place since then – maybe someplace on this planet the place there are pockets of ‘immunity hole’ and non-existent environmental surveillance,” he mentioned.
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