WHO says Polio outbreak in Malawi is imported, urging the African continent to put on quality surveillance systems in place, as the Malawi polio case raises concerns that the virus can reemerge in region.
Dr. Richard Mihigo Regional Immunisation Advisor, World Health Organisation (WHO), AFRO, said that while speaking to newsmen, at the Area 2 Primary Health Care,(PHC) on Thursday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that a newly discovered case of wild polio in Malawi raises the possibility that a virus that has been driven out of the African continent can again find a toehold there.
The case was a 3-year-old girl who lived on the outskirts of the capital, Lilongwe. She was paralysed on Nov. 19; testing showed she’d been infected with a type 1 wild poliovirus.
Comparison of the virus’ genetic sequence to other previous viruses revealed that it derived from a family of viruses that was seen circulating in Pakistan’s Sindh Province in October 2019.
Mihigo, who is one of the Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance’s mission team to Nigeria, said they were in the country to assess the progress on the implementation of routine immunisation, Polio and also the progress on COVID-19 vaccination.
He said the WHO had data in place that was being analysed in the laboratory to find out more about the imported case.
“It’s not an indigenous world polio virus in Malawi, so for Nigeria, but also for Africa, It’s important that we continue to tighten the surveillance system, but also to continue to increase coverage for the routine Immunisation vaccination so that the new cohorts of children that are born are also protected against any type of imported infection,” he advised.
He also explained that it was important for Africans to know that the imported case of polio in Malawi would not affect their polio certification by the WHO.
“ it’s clearly not an indigenous virus that was circulating in that country. It’s important to highlight that the last case of wild poliovirus in Malawi was in 1992, almost 30 years. So they have maintained a very good routine immunisation.
“This is also a good illustration of a good quality surveillance system, if improved, it can pick up any case, wherever it happens,” he added.
Mihigo, while speaking on their visit to the PHC, said they were very much impressed to see how the center was organised.
“We’ve seen people coming to receive their COVID-19 vaccination, what is so heartwarming is that many women and fathers also brought their children to receive routine vaccination.
“So I think this is really something we are congratulating the government, the National Primary Health Care Department Agency,(NPHCDA), and we hope that this will continue to increase people’s confidence not only for routine immunisation, but also to make sure that the numbers for COVID-19 vaccination are also improving,” he added.
Prof. Helen Rees, Independent Board Member, Gavi, said that one of the
the most powerful tools known to protect children was vaccination.
According to Rees, Gavi is supporting the Nigerian government to increase routine immunisation for children, So that many of these childhood diseases and some of the commonest killers here we understand are diarrhea and pneumonia, and many of those deaths can be avoided, if we can get through immunisation coverage in children up.
“ Gavi is also supporting the government in rolling out COVID-19 vaccines. Because, as we all know, the whole world is affected by COVID-19. And we’re very keen that it shouldn’t only be the rich countries who have access to COVID-19 vaccines, all countries across this region should also have access to vaccines,” she added.
Dr. Kate O’Brien, Director, Department of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals, WHO, said that no one knew if there would be more variants of COVID-19, stating that every four to five months, new variants emerged from the virus.
O’Brien stressed that this was an
opportunity for Nigerians to quickly get vaccinated and ensure everyone remained safe.
“I want to emphasise how important it is that people who are at highest risk of serious infection are to be prioritised and they really need to be the priority in the country.
“ So as older adults, we have to protect our elderly people in all our communities, our healthcare workers. It’s also people who have underlying medical conditions. If you have diabetes or high blood pressure, you’re at higher risk of getting serious infection from this virus,” she explained.
The Assistant Administrator for Global Health, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Dr Atul Gawande, disclosed that the USAID assistance,that came through Gavi, in the PHC, was a freezer to keep all the vaccines for the children and now for COVID-19 cold.
Gwande noted that the freezer had been in the PHC with a solar panel for five years and functioning beautifully.
According to him, the whole room is filled with parents with their children who have come to get their vaccines, the FCT has a very high rate of successful vaccination for children. And we will like to see that across the country.
Earlier, Dr Nneka Onu Director, PHC Systems, NPHCDA, who represented Executive Director, NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, said that this was part of the activity of the high level Gavi mission that had been in Nigeria and needed to see what the PHC was doing hands on.
“ We felt it was important that they see how we are getting vaccinated, and also how we are integrating the kind of services we have on what we offer.
“And to see how to support Nigeria in any aspects. Everybody have seen what we do and they have also said that vaccines are available, we have all the vaccines available and people are coming and being mobilised,” she added.
Onu noted that the high level team were also encouraged by what they had seen in the PHC .
“They said that this is more than 1000 presentations, you know, seen it on, and we appreciate it. Of course, there are challenges that they have seen. I think that they’ve also given feedback to the state or things to do more in terms of HIV/ AIDS and other matters, most especially for mothers who are pregnant,” she noted. (NAN)
