(CNN) — Malawi health authorities declared an outbreak of poliomyelitis 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 Organization (WHO) said.
The WHO said in a statement that laboratory tests 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 certified wild poliovirus-free status of the African region,” the WHO said.
African health workers administering polio vaccines to children.
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The Global Polio Eradication Initiative said the case in the southern African country was in a three-year-old girl who experienced the onset of paralysis in November last year.
Sequencing of the virus in February by the South African National Institute of Communicable Diseases and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed it as wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1).
“The detection of WPV1 outside of the world’s two remaining endemic countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a serious concern and underscores the importance of prioritizing polio immunization activities,” the Global Polio Eradication Initiative said.
polio in africa
The WHO said the African continent could launch a rapid response due to the high level of polio 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 at the WHO regional office for Africa.
Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious disease that invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. While there is no cure for polio, it can be prevented by administering a vaccine, the WHO said.
Africa was declared free of wild poliovirus in August 2020 by the world health body following the culmination of decades of efforts by regional governments and non-profit organizations to eradicate the virus from the continent, which had seen some 75,000 children paralyzed. annually.
The WHO had waited four years since the last reported case of the wild poliovirus in Nigeria before announcing its eradication from Africa 17 months ago to ensure there were no traces of the virus on the continent, officials told CNN.
Polio eradication efforts in Africa have prevented nearly two million children from lifelong paralysis and saved around 180,000 lives, the WHO said.
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