Malawi Wild Polio Case

February 19, 2022

After a case of wild polio was discovered in a three-year-old child, Malawi announced a wild polio outbreak, the first of its kind in Africa in more than five years. In the year 2020, the continent was declared free of all kinds of wild polio.

Overview:

Malawi’s government is currently working to contain any spread, including increasing immunization. Only two nations in the world still have wild polio: Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Malawi strain was connected to one identified in Pakistan, although it remains unclear how or when it arrived in the south-eastern African country. According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the case was confirmed after tests were performed on samples from the infected child who was suffering from paralysis.

About Polio in Africa

Polio is most common in children under the age of five, and it can result in irreversible paralysis. When respiratory muscles are harmed, death can occur.

Thousands of children in Africa were paralyzed by the illness twenty-five years ago. However, 95 percent of the population has been immunized as a result of a massive vaccination effort across the continent. Although there is no cure, the polio vaccine protects youngsters for the rest of their lives.

About Wild Polio

The most common form of poliovirus is wild polio. Wild polio is spread through the environment, but another type of polio connected to the oral vaccine (which contains a live, weakened virus) is equally dangerous. It can remain in the stomach, mutate, and spread in areas where vaccination rates are low. In recent years, outbreaks of this type of polio have been reported in more than 20 African countries.

Poliovirus is spread from person to person by droplets from the upper respiratory tract in the early stages of infection or, by ingestion of infected faeces or contaminated material in unhygienic conditions.