THE third round of the Wild Polio Vaccination will commence on May 23 up to 26 in Zimbabwe, targeting mainly children between zero to five years.
The vaccination comes amidst reports of continued presence of the disease in neighboring countries.
A total of nine wild poliovirus cases have been reported so far, with one in Malawi and eight in neighbouring Mozambique since the declaration of an outbreak on 17 February 2022 in Malawi. The last confirmed case to date was in August 2022 in Mozambique. The wild poliovirus in Malawi and Mozambique originated from Pakistan, one of the two last endemic countries.
Mr Israel Makwara, a Harare City Health Public Health expert told Journalists during a Media sensitization meeting on Catalysing COVID-19 Action (CCA) in Kadoma that Harare was already conducting Polio surveillance to check if the bulk sewer contains the Polio virus.
The third round of Wild Polio vaccinating will run from the 23rd to the 26th of May. We are hopeful that all systems will be in place for the vaccination to commence. We are sure that the vaccination would have happened in those four days to make sure that any child below the age five year gets the vaccine,” said Mr Makwara.
He added that the vaccination campaign will be a door-to-door activity where they intend to reach out to as many children as possible.
“There will be transit teams moving around vaccinating kids that are eligible.”
Polio is highly infectious and affects unimmunized or under-immunized children. In Malawi and Mozambique, it has paralysed children younger than 15 years. There is no cure for polio, and it can only be prevented by immunization. Children across the world remain at risk of wild polio type 1 as long as the virus is not eradicated in the last remaining areas in which it is still circulating.
Despite the circulation of wild poliovirus type 1 and the variant polioviruses, incredible progress has been made. Since 1988, when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was set up, polio cases have plummeted by 99% from an estimated annual total of 350 000.
