Malawi has declared polio outbreak after a three-year-old girl was diagnosed – the first time in Africa in more than five years.
Malawian authorities are now working to contain any possible spreads, including vaccinations.
Polio is still prevalent in only two countries in the world – Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The species identified in Malawi are related to those found in Pakistan. But it is unclear how and when they arrived in a country in southern Africa.
Polio usually affects children under the age of five, sometimes leading to irreversible paralysis.
Twenty-five years ago thousands of children in Africa were maimed by the virus.
There is no cure but the polio vaccine protects children for life.
Since the case comes from Pakistan. It does not affect the state of the poliovirus-free continent, says the World Health Organization (WHO).
(which contains a living, weaker virus) that is equally troublesome.
Few people are vaccinated
There has been an outbreak of polio in more than 20 African countries in recent years.
It also takes back a continent that thought it had seen after polio.
Outbreak is unclear
The magnitude of the outbreak is unclear. The immediate goal will be to ensure that Malawi does not suffer from a major epidemic.
Polio has become one of the most feared diseases in human history. But all conditions are preventable by vaccination. An amazing global vaccination campaign has only reintroduced the virus in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
We are very close to eradicating polio in the world. And see the end of the pandemic, but the last step has proved to be very difficult to take.
Malawi
The southern part of the lake flows into Lake Malawi National Park – which protects wildlife from a variety of colorful fish to chimpanzees – and its clear waters are famous for diving and boating.
In 1953, it became a defense between the Federation of Rhodesia and the independent Nyasaland. Two years later he became a republic. It gained full independence in the United Kingdom, and by 1970 it had become a one-party state under the leadership of Hastings Banda, who remained in this position until 1994.
Today, Malawi has a democratic republic, with many factions led by an elected president. Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party led the Tonse Alliance of nine political parties and won a court-mandated presidential election campaign on June 23, 2020 following the cancellation of the May 2019 Presidential Election due to electoral irregularities. The country’s military, the Malawian Defense Force, consists of the army, the navy and the air force.
