Category: Health Care

Malawi has launched the first round of vaccination campaign against wild poliovirus type 1 using the bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). The campaign is targeting 2.9 million children under 5 years in a four-round vaccination drive after Malawi declared an outbreak on 17 February—the first such case in the country in 30 years, and the first in Africa since the region was certified free of indigenous wild poliovirus in 2020.

More than 80 million doses will be administered to more than 23 million children under 5 years in the four-round vaccination drive in five southern African countries. The first phase of the campaign targets 9.4 million children in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. Three subsequent rounds—in which Zimbabwe will also take part—are set for April, June and July

Mass vaccinations, or supplementary vaccinations, aims to interrupt the circulation of poliovirus by immunizing every child under 5 years with oral polio vaccine regardless of previous immunization status. The objective is to reach children who are either not immunized, or only partially protected, and to boost immunity in those who have been immunized. Supplementary immunization is intended to complement—not replace—routine immunization.

“Polio is a highly infectious and an untreatable disease that can result in permanent paralysis. In support of Malawi and its neighbors, we are acting fast to halt this outbreak and extinguish the threat through effective vaccinations,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “The African region has already defeated wild poliovirus due to a monumental effort by countries. We have the know-how and are tirelessly working to ensure that every child lives and thrives in a continent free of polio.”

The Minister of Health, Honourable Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, MP said: “The Ministry of Health with support from partners has put in place strategies for eradication of Polio in the country. Malawi will continue to sustain a good coverage of all its vaccine antigen above 80% to prevent and contain vaccine preventable diseases.”

“The High-level political support and leadership of the Govt of Malawi has inspired the nation, the global community as well as in-country partners to act in unison and halt the spread of Polio. I am very optimistic about this national campaign because of the level of commitment and organization I have seen.” In addition to ending polio, another legacy of this massive national effort must be that we strengthen our systems – to detect all epidemic prone diseases as well as deliver essential health services, including routine immunization,” said Dr Janet Kayita, Acting WHO Representative in Malawi.

UNICEF Representative, Rudolph Shwenk said “No child should die or suffer for life from a preventable disease. Our joint responsibility is to ensure that something as inexpensive, safe, effective and easy to deliver as vaccines – which have already saved hundreds of thousands of children worldwide – reaches those at greatest risk in Malawi.”

“The actions during the campaign this week and the subsequent vaccination campaigns over the next few months are critically important,” said CDC Country Director, Kelsey Mirkovi. “It is up to us to prove to the world that we can vaccinate every child under 5 years old and end this virus here in Malawi, and in all of Africa, once and for all.”

The African region was declared and certified as free of indigenous wild polio in August 2020 after eliminating all forms of wild poliovirus. The region’s certification as wild polio-free remains unchanged. Laboratory analysis linked the strain detected in Malawi to the one circulating in Pakistan’s Sindh Province in 2019.

WHO has been supporting the country to reinforce response measures including a risk assessment disease surveillance, and preparations for the vaccination campaigns. A surge team from WHO is working with country-based counterparts, partner organizations and the government to end the outbreak. The WHO team is part of a broader multi-partner Global Polio Eradication Initiative support to the country.

The country has also now set up environmental surveillance for polioviruses in 11 sites across four cities. They include 3 sites in Lilongwe District that encompasses the capital Lilongwe where the initial, and so far, only case, was detected. Other sites are in Blantyre, Mzuzu and Zomba cities. Teams are collecting samples from the environment and sending them for analysis to laboratories while active surveillance is also underway in health facilities and in communities.

Polio is a viral disease with no cure. It invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis within hours, particularly among children under 5 years. The virus is transmitted from person to person mainly through contamination hands, water or food by faecal matter. While there is no cure for polio, the disease can be prevented through administration of a safe, simple and effective vaccine

Source: World Health Organization

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.

Source: Nam News Network

Lilongwe, 20 March 2022 – More than nine million children are to be vaccinated against polio in the first round of a mass campaign across four countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, after an outbreak was confirmed in Malawi.

The drive, led by governments, with the support of UNICEF and partners, was launched today in Malawi, and will be followed on Thursday with campaigns starting in neighbouring Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.

Three more rounds of vaccination will follow in the coming months, covering a total of more than twenty million children.

“This is the first case of wild polio detected in Africa for more than five years and UNICEF is working closely with governments and partners to do everything possible to stop the virus in its tracks,” says Mohamed M. Fall, UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa.

“Polio spreads fast and can kill or cause permanent paralysis.”

UNICEF, the World Health Organization and other partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative are supporting governments with the urgent drive, after it was confirmed last month that a three-year-old girl was paralysed by wild poliovirus in Lilongwe in Malawi.

People most commonly contract polio when they drink water that is contaminated with the faeces of someone who carries the virus. Children under the age of five and those living in areas with poor sanitation are most at risk.

“A regional response is vital as polio is extremely contagious and can spread easily as people move across borders,” says Mohamed M. Fall.

“There is no cure for polio, but the vaccine protects children for life. We are working with the World Health Organization and other partners to make sure parents, as well as community and religious leaders, know how important it is that every child receives their vaccine.”

UNICEF has procured more than 36 million doses of polio vaccine for the first two rounds of immunisations of children in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia and is helping to prepare the following response:

• In Malawi, UNICEF is installing 270 new vaccine refrigerators, repairing vaccine refrigerators and distributing 800 remote temperature monitoring devices, vaccine carriers and cold boxes. In partnership with the World Health Organization, UNICEF has trained 13,500 health workers and volunteers, 34 district health promotion officers and 50 faith leaders.

• In Mozambique, UNICEF has procured 2,500 vaccine carriers and has delivered 100 cold boxes and is assisting with the swift delivery of vaccines from national to provincial stores. UNICEF is also supporting the training of 33,000 supervisors and frontline workers on vaccine management and social and behavioural change, as well as training of journalists, distribution of communication materials and broadcasting radio and TV spots to support the polio campaign.

• In Tanzania, UNICEF has trained 2,147 health workers, 5,128 social mobilizers and 538 town criers, and facilitated the procurement of 3,000 vaccine carriers and 360 cold boxes, expected to be delivered in April 2022 f

• or use in the upcoming rounds of campaigns.

• In Zambia, more than 200 trainers are coaching healthcare workers at the provincial and district level, with support from UNICEF and partners. District officials have been trained on polio surveillance, in partnership with the World Health Organization.

Source: UN Children’s Fund

Malawi Sunday launched a polio vaccination campaign after the country in February confirmed its first case, 30 years after it eradicated the disease.

UNICEF, the World Health Organization and other partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative are leading the campaign, which targets over 20 million children in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania by July.

The vaccine rollout comes after it was confirmed last month that a 3-year-old girl was paralyzed by wild poliovirus in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe.

Until February, Malawi had last reported a polio case in 1992. The southern African country was declared polio-free in 2005 — 15 years before the whole continent achieved the same status.

UNICEF says over 9 million children are to be vaccinated in the first round of the mass campaign in Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi.

UNICEF said the mass immunization will also target children previously vaccinated.

“We need to vaccinate children who have been vaccinated before because it takes multiple doses of the polio doses to get fully immunized as regards to polio and every additional dose gives children extra protection,” says Rudolf Schwenk, UNICEF’s representative in Malawi.

Schwenk says if some children are not immunized during the campaign, starting Monday the risk of polio will remain not only in Malawi but in neighboring countries as well.

So far, UNICEF has procured over 36 million doses of polio vaccine for the first two rounds of immunizations of children in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.

In Malawi, the U.N. children’s agency is set to administer 6.8 million doses of the polio vaccine to be used in the first two rounds of vaccination in March and April, targeting 2.9 million children.

Three more rounds of vaccination will follow in the coming months, covering a total of more than 20 million children from the targeted four African countries.

However, in Malawi some health experts fear the immunization campaign would meet with vaccine resistance, as has been the case with COVID-19 vaccine in Malawi.

But UNICEF says efforts were made already to increase acceptance and demand for the polio vaccine among parents and communities.

“So we have worked with faith leaders, with high-level government officials, we have spoken to community leaders and with our partners we have done sensitization discussion to help the understand the importance of vaccinating the children,” said Schwenk.

He also says they have distributed information, education and communication materials across Malawi and aired radio messages about the advantages of the polio vaccine.

Dr. Mike Chisema, the manager for the Expanded Program on Immunization in the Ministry of Health in Malawi, told journalists Thursday that the government was ready for the polio vaccination campaign despite shortage of health care workers.

“Issue of human resource remains a challenge,” he said. “It’s not just about this particular program of outbreak response alone. But what is most important to note is that we have the teams that are available; our health surveillance assistants who do this work all the time. But it’s a question of adding the numbers over time. But we will work to manage with available human resource on the ground.”

In a statement released Sunday, UNICEF said in partnership with the World Health Organization they have trained health care workers in all the countries where they are administering the polio vaccine.

In Malawi they have trained 13,500 health workers and volunteers, 34 district health promotion officers. While in Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia they have trained a combined total of about 3,000 health care workers.

Source: Voice of America

One year ago today, Malawi launched a COVID-19 vaccination campaign with vaccine doses it received from the COVAX Facility.

To date, 1,955,495 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered and an estimated 4.4% of the total population has been fully vaccinated. Efforts are underway to increase vaccine uptake to reach a wider proportion of the population.

Since the first shipments, the country has now received a total of 4,469,720 million COVID-19 vaccine doses; 55% (2,459,820 doses) of these from COVAX, 16% (706,800 doses) from the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVATT), and 29% (1,303,100 doses) from bilateral deals and donations. Starting with one vaccine type — Astrazeneca — Malawi is now offering COVID-19 vaccination with three vaccines — Astrazeneca, Janssen, and Pfizer

Malawi rolled out the COVID-19 vaccine in a phased approach, starting with health care workers and other priority groups which included, immigration officers, National Defense Forces, prison warders, prisoners, teachers, those 60 years old and above, and people with underlying health conditions. However, the vaccine roll-out was challenged at several levels, resulting in low uptake.

According to World Health Organization social listening survey, there was vaccine hesitancy due to misinformation, disinformation, and lack of general knowledge about the COVID-19 vaccines. Malawi also faced vaccine supply chain challenges, including a delay in vaccine supply, which resulted in COVID-19 vaccine stockout at the peak of the third wave – this setback was a missed opportunity to increase the number of vaccinated population. Malawi also experienced health system pressures to deliver multiple vaccine types, some with very short shelf-lives, while ensuring that health workers were trained on each vaccine specificities, and that vaccines were delivered within their lifetime

“Despite the challenges, the Ministry of Health with support from partners such as GAVI, UNICEF, the World Bank and WHO, has made great efforts to increase the vaccine uptake through expanding vaccination sites, ensuring effective use of available stocks, pacing delivery of new vaccine stocks, mobilizing communities and addressing doubts and misinformation, training health workers, and providing additional support for low-performing districts to increase vaccine uptake” said Dr Janet Kayita, Acting WHO Representative in Malawi. “WHO congratulates Malawi on this important milestone, and will continue to support the government and its partners to achieve its goals.”

In Oct. 2021, a joint Ministry of Health (MoH) and WHO-led partner multi-agency mission comprising of WHO, UNICEF, JSI and Gavi examined the root causes for the slow COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Malawi and recommended strategies — both supply and demand-side – to scale up the uptake.

To increase vaccine demand, the country has deployed different vaccine delivery strategies. Besides having fixed vaccination sites, the country has also adopted periodic mobile, outreach and door to door vaccination campaigns.

In November, 2021, Malawi government with support from UNICEF and technical support from WHO, launched a COVID-19 Vaccine Express Program to reach all parts of the country including the remotest of the rural locations where community settlements are high. Following the vaccine express program, the country registered an increase in uptake of vaccines by 61%.

In a sub-set of low-performing districts with a high burden of COVID-19, WHO with UNICEF and health partners are supporting the Ministry of Health to enhance support supervision and enhance demand for the COVID-19 vaccine. Through WHO technical and financial support, the Ministry of Health conducts community engagement initiatives that target village health committees, traditional and religious leaders. The aim of the engagements is to orient the key community influencers on COVID-19 vaccine messages that highlight health benefits of the vaccine. The orientation also aims at addressing misinformation, myths and misconceptions surrounding the COVID-19 vaccines.

WHO continues to support the country to scale up COVID-19 vaccine uptake, which will protect against severe forms of disease, hospitalization and the emergence of variants. WHO is also support efforts to step up surveillance, genome sequencing capacity, and increase testing to facilitate early detection and response to clusters of cases. Support for efforts to adhere to public health and social measures is also continuing

Source: World Health Organization