Polio Outbreak In Malawi: First Case Of Wild Poliovirus In Africa In More Than 5 Years Is An Imported Strain from Pakistan

The World Health Organization said authorities in Malawi have detected a case of polio in the southern African country's capital, another setback in continuing efforts to eradicate the highly infectious paralytic disease globally.

In a statement on Friday, the UN health agency said officials had identified wild poliovirus disease in a young child in Lilongwe, the first time the wild virus has been detected on the African continent in five years.

Although polio has been spreading in numerous African countries in recent years, those outbreaks were linked to viruses originally contained in vaccines, not to the wild virus. In very rare instances, the live virus in the oral polio vaccine can mutate into a version capable of causing epidemics, particularly in populations that haven't been immunised.

“The last case of wild polio virus in Africa was identified in northern Nigeria in 2016 and globally there were only five cases in 2021. Any case of wild polio virus is a significant event and we will mobilize all resources to support the country’s response,” said Dr Modjirom Ndoutabe, Polio Coordinator in the WHO Regional Office for Africa.

Imported Strain From Pakistan

WHO said lab tests showed the polio virus detected in Malawi is connected to the strain that has been spreading in Pakistan's Sindh province, where the disease remains entrenched.

The Pakistan government has suspended the anti-polio drive in the past following the growing number of attacks on polio workers in different parts of the country.

Attempts to eradicate the crippling disease In Pakistan have been seriously hampered by deadly targeting of vaccination teams in recent years by Islamic militants, who oppose the drives, claiming that the polio drops cause infertility.

"As an imported case from Pakistan, this detection does not affect the African region's wild poliovirus-free certification status," the WHO said.

"As long as wild polio exists anywhere in the world all countries remain at risk of importation of the virus," said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization's Africa chief.

"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 could launch a rapid response because of a high level of polio surveillance.

Polio spreads mostly from person to person or through contaminated water. It attacks the nervous system and can sometimes paralyse people within hours. The disease mostly affects children under five and has been largely wiped out in rich countries.

Health officials say polio is endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, although numerous countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have also reported cases in recent years. WHO and its partners have struggled for decades to eradicate polio — their initial deadline was to wipe out the disease by 2000 but they have since missed multiple targets to eliminate it.

Many control efforts were suspended during the pandemic, allowing the disease to spread further in what some officials warned could be a devastating setback for eradication plans.

(With Additional Inputs From PTI)