JOHANNESBURG: Malawi has declared a polio outbreak after a case was detected in a young child in the capital Lilongwe, the first case of wild poliovirus in Africa in more than five years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
The Malawian health authorities have declared an outbreak of wild poliovirus type 1 after a case was detected in the capital Lilongwe, 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.
“As an imported case from Pakistan, this detection does not affect the African region’s wild poliovirus-free certification status,” the WHO said in a statement.
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. Sequencing of the virus conducted in February by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed it as type 1 wild poliovirus (WPV1).
“Detection of WPV1 outside the world’s two remaining endemic countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a serious concern and underscores the importance of prioritising polio immunisation activities,” the Global Polio Eradication Initiative said.
The WHO said the African continent was able to respond rapidly response because of a high level of surveillance.
“The last case of wild poliovirus in Africa was identified in northern Nigeria in 2016 and globally there were only five cases in 2021. Any case of wild poliovirus is a significant event and we will mobilize all resources to support the country’s response,” said Modjirom Ndoutabe, polio coordinator in the WHO’s regional office for Africa.
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 vaccine, the WHO said.
“The strain of poliovirus detected (in Malawi) is a close match to a strain last detected in a child with paralysis in the (Pakistani) province of Sindh in October 2019,” said Hamid Jaffery, Director, Polio Eradication, WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. “Until we stop transmission of polio in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the world remains at risk,” he said.
Pakistan is among countries where it is recommended international travellers have polio vaccination certificates. Africa was declared free of indigenous wild polio in August 2020 after eliminating all forms of wild polio and no cases had occurred on the continent for the past four years.
