LILONGWE, March 21 (NNN-Xinhua) — Malawi has rolled out a polio vaccination campaign targeting more than 2.9 million children aged 0-5 across the country.
Minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda on Sunday officially unveiled the campaign here in the capital, saying the campaign will be carried out in four phases from March up to July, using a door-to-door strategy.
According to the minister, Malawi received 6.8 million doses of oral polio vaccine from GAVI Alliance on March 5 for two rounds of the campaign and the doses have already been distributed to all the districts in readiness for the polio vaccination campaign.
She added that Malawi is also working very closely with neighboring countries to monitor the disease.
In February, Malawi declared polio as a public health emergency after the Global Polio Laboratory Network confirmed in Lilongwe one case of type-1 wild poliovirus (WPV1), which is genetically linked to the WPV1 detected in Pakistan’s Sindh Province in October 2019.
The last polio case in Malawi was reported in 1992 and the country obtained a polio free status in 2005. — NNN-XINHUA
