Millions of children to be vaccinated for polio in Africa after Malawi detects case
Source: The Guardian
Millions of children to be vaccinated for polio in Africa after Malawi detects case
First case of wild polio detected in Malawi for 30 years prompts emergency rollout of vaccinations in five African countries
Charles Pensulo in Lilongwe
Mon 21 Mar 2022 12.01 GMT
More than 23 million young children across southern Africa will be offered vaccinations against wild polio after an outbreak of the virus was detected in Malawi for the first time since 1992.
Children under five in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital, began to be immunised on Sunday as part of a mass drive against the disease.
Over the next four months, vaccines will be offered to children across the country and in Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Last month, Malawi recorded the first case of wild polio in 30 years, and the first in Africa since the region was certified free of indigenous wild poliovirus in 2020. So far only one case has been detected in Lilongwe.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/mar/21/millions-of-children-to-be-vaccinated-for-polio-in-africa-after-malawi-detects-case
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