Malawi’s health authorities have declared a wild polio virus outbreak after a case was detected in a young child in the capital Lilongwe after more than five years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. The WHO said in a statement that laboratory analysis showed the strain detected in Malawi was linked to one that has been circulating in Pakistan.
In a major achievement against the crippling virus, Lahore has become the first polio-free city in the country. The fifth environmental sample taken from the city for the poliovirus has tested negative. Earlier four environmental samples for the virus had tested negative. Lahore Deputy Commissioner paid rich tribute to the doctors, polio workers, and the parents for making the city polio-free.
38-year-old Pakistani stuntman, Muhammad Usman, who was paralyzed at the age of six with the crippling polio virus can jump over five cars on a motorcycle and pull a car with a chain tied to a sharp knife hung around his neck. There are many showmen in Pakistan who can perform such stunts, but Usman, from Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, is special due to his disability.
If Pakistan does not make fruitful changes to eradicate Poliovirus in next six months, the situation would become dire, notes the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB). Citing modelling data, the report notes that Pakistan is at the risk of wild poliovirus cases reaching 500 by end of 2020 and vaccine-derived poliovirus cases reaching 1,000.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world with cases of Polio endemic as Africa was declared free of wild polio on Tuesday. All 47 countries in the WHO’s Africa region have eradicated the crippling viral disease, the last polio case was recorded four years ago in Nigeria. Although thousands of people across Africa still live with the effects of the disease.