Categories: Health

14 April 2024 Polio in Zimbabwe.

April 14, 2024

From October 2023 to present Zimbabwe identified 21 circulating cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) in environmental samples (ES) from 4 polio surveillance sites in Harare.

That same month, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Health declared the polio outbreak a public health emergency (PHE).

In January 2024 the case human poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) in a 10-year-old girl with acute flaccid paralysis (AFP).

During the reporting period, not a single new case of poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) was registered at environmental sites.

During Epidemiological Week 2024 (EW12), a total of 13 new cases of AFP were reported; the cumulative number of cases now stands at 80, and the non-polio acute flaccid paralysis rate (NPAFP rate) is 1.6 children aged 0 to 14 years.

The first round of polio campaigns was completed in February 2024, reaching approximately 4.6 million (108 percent) children.

The country successfully completed the second round of its vaccination campaign with the new oral polio vaccine (polio) type 2 (nOPV) from 19 to 23 March 2024, reaching approximately 4.8 million children.

Results from the Quality Assurance Batch Sample (LQAS) show significant improvements in quality and coverage, with approximately 82 percent of districts (59 of 72) testing, compared to 73 percent in the first round.

Zimbabwe last reported a case of indigenous wild poliovirus (WPV) in 1986 and has been certified polio-free since 2005. Following the discovery of wild poliovirus 1 (WPV1) in Mozambique and Malawi in 2022, Zimbabwe began supplementary immunization activities (SIA) in 2023 in several countries using bivalent oral polio vaccine. (bOPV2) and performed 4 rounds of SIA. Zimbabwe, which declared PHE in October 2023, has so far detected 21 cases of cVDPV2 in environmental samples in Harare. Samples were collected from four environmental polio surveillance sites in Harare.

Zimbabwe, like many other countries, remains at risk of a polio outbreak, whether from wild polio or vaccines, until global eradication.