JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
As the globe marks World Polio Day, Africa has recorded 134 new polio cases in at least seven countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced.
The regional director of the
WHO for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, stated that the circulating variant of polio
type 2 has been detected in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African
Republic, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria.
In 2023, 541 children
worldwide were impacted by polio, with 85 percent residing in 31 countries that
are fragile, conflict-affected, and vulnerable, as reported by a recent UNICEF
analysis on World Polio Day.
Over the last five years,
polio cases in these regions have more than doubled, and routine childhood
immunization rates have decreased from 75 to 70 percent, significantly lower
than the 95 percent required for community immunity.
A worldwide drop in childhood
immunization rates has resulted in a rise in polio outbreaks, even in nations
that had been free of the disease for many years.
This situation is particularly
pronounced in areas affected by conflict, with 15 out of 21 such countries—like
Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, and
Yemen—currently facing polio challenges.
Recently, UNICEF and its
partners have ramped up emergency measures to address the increase in polio
cases.
In Gaza, for instance, UNICEF,
in collaboration with WHO, managed to vaccinate nearly 600,000 children under
the age of 10 during the initial phase of a polio vaccination drive in
mid-September.
The second and final phase has
been carried out successfully in southern and central Gaza, although ongoing
mass displacements and bombings have hindered efforts in the northern region.
This campaign marks the return
of polio to Gaza after a 25-year absence.
In Sudan, the national
childhood vaccination rate has plummeted from 85% prior to the conflict to just
53% in 2023, with active conflict zones seeing coverage drop to a mere 30%.
In response, UNICEF and its
partners have conducted two emergency polio vaccination campaigns in recent
months, successfully reaching 2.9 million children under five through
door-to-door efforts.
Effective polio vaccination
initiatives in fragile, conflict-affected, and vulnerable regions are vital for
preventing further cases and safeguarding already at-risk children.
Humanitarian pauses are
crucial to allow healthcare workers to safely access children and administer
vaccines.
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