Malawi finds polio for the first time in almost 5 years.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a polio epidemic in Malawi after a case was discovered in a small kid in the capital Lilongwe, the first instance of wild poliovirus in Africa in more than five years.

Laboratory examination revealed that the strain found in Malawi was linked to one that has been circulating in Pakistan, where it is still endemic, according to the WHO.
"This finding does not alter the African region's wild poliovirus-free certification status because it is an imported case from Pakistan," the WHO stated.

According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the instance in the southern African country included a three-year-old child who became paralyzed in November of last year.
The virus was verified as type 1 wild poliovirus after sequencing by South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February (WPV1).

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative stated, "Detection of WPV1 outside of the world's two remaining endemic nations, Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a serious worry and highlights the significance of prioritizing polio immunization programs."
Because of the high degree of polio surveillance on the African continent, the WHO believes it will be able to respond quickly.

"In Africa, the final incidence of wild poliovirus was discovered in northern Nigeria in 2016, and there were just five instances worldwide in 2021.
Any outbreak of wild poliovirus is a major event, and we will devote all of our resources to assisting the country's reaction "According to Modjirom Ndoutabe, the WHO's regional office for Africa's polio coordinator.
Polio is a highly contagious disease that attacks the nervous system and can cause complete paralysis in as little as 24 hours. The WHO stated that while there is no cure for polio, it can be prevented through vaccination.

Following decades of effort by regional governments and organizations to eradicate the virus from the continent, which had paralyzed an estimated 75,000 children annually, the world health body declared Africa free of wild poliovirus in August 2020.
Officials told CNN that the WHO waited four years after the last confirmed case of wild poliovirus in Nigeria before declaring the virus eradicated in Africa 17 months ago to guarantee there were no traces of the virus on the continent.

Polio eradication efforts in Africa have prevented nearly two million children from crippling life-long paralysis and saved around 180,000 lives, the WHO said.