Africa was certified free of any type of polio two years ago and has had no confirmed case of wild polio for over five years no confirmed case. But in 2021, the United Nations news website reported that outbreaks of vaccine-derived poliovirus are spreading throughout communities where only a few children received the polio vaccine.
Not only that, but the African region also recently recorded two new cases of poliovirus last month. These strains are associated with one found in Pakistan.
A community health worker delivers a polio vaccine to fight against polio virus which is highly contagious and can cause paralysis and lifelong disability, or even death, during the polio immunization campaign in Kiamako, Nairobi on July 19, 2021.
New Cases of Wild polio in Africa
Last month, BBC News reported that the southeastern African country of Malawi had declared a wild polio outbreak after one case was identified in a 3-year-old girl. It has become the first of its kind in Africa after over five years.
Malawian authorities are working even harder to contain the virus and to prevent the possibility of it from spreading by boosting immunization. Authorities said that the strain was linked to one found in Pakistan, although they are not yet sure how it arrived in the country.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative confirmed the case after several tests were carried out on samples taken from the suspected child who was suffering paralysis.
But a week later, another bad news came from Afghanistan when gunmen were said to kill eight polio workers in the northeastern part of the country. In both Pakistan and Afghanistan, wild poliovirus remains endemic and the only two countries remaining in the world.
Incidents such as these are considered setbacks on the long, bumpy road towards global polio eradication efforts. For over a year now, polio cases have dramatically improved in Pakistan and Afghanistan, in which health authorities have recorded a low history.
Vaccine-Derived Polio Outbreaks in Africa
Although the strain from Pakistan poses a great risk to the African region, the biggest threat to the polio eradication program is the explosion of vaccine-derived polio outbreaks that affected almost two dozen countries last year.
According to Science, vaccine-derived strains emerged in under-immunized places as it allows the live, weakened virus from the oral polio vaccine to circulate and mutate to revert to its neurovirulent form and paralyze kids. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that these outbreaks are "very worrying" and "front burner" at the global effort at stopping poliovirus.
Moreover, WHO polio program adviser Simona Zipursky said that a big part of the problem is that countries do not view this strain as an emergency even though it behaves similarly to the wild poliovirus. An example of this is Nigeria, the last African nation to eradicate wild polio. But its polio program has slowly deteriorated, and the country has become an important generator of vaccine-derived poliovirus.
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