from HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to world@lemmy.world on 23 Feb 11:06
https://sh.itjust.works/post/55782674
As a seven-year-old boy is treated for polio at a hospital in Malawi, the country has launched a major vaccination campaign to stem an outbreak of the disease.
The effort in Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries and badly hit by the aid cuts, has seen an astonishing 1.3 million children already vaccinated against the disease in just four days after emergency supplies were airlifted in by the World Health Organization (WHO) just over a week ago.
Malawi declared the outbreak after the virus was detected in two “environmental samples” taken from two sewage plants in Blantyre, the country’s second-largest city and where the only known victim lives.
A single case of polio is considered dangerous, particularly in areas with low vaccination rates, because it is a highly infectious virus that spreads silently and as many people have very mild symptoms. It causes permanent, irreversible paralysis or death in a small but significant percentage of cases, especially in children. Malawi has not had a case of wild poliovirus since 2022.
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