Outbreak of polio prompts mass vaccination campaign

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the governments of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali are launching a cross-border polio vaccination campaign today following an April 2008 report of a polio case at Tillabéry in southwest Niger, 100km from the borders of Mali and Burkina Faso.

The campaign will target the Gao region in Mali, north-eastern Burkina Faso, and southern Niger, including Maradi, Tahoua and the capital, Niamey.

“Hundreds of thousands of children will be vaccinated, the majority of them in Niger, to avoid the virus spreading into neighbouring countries,” Mathieu Kamwa, coordinator of the WHO West Africa office told IRIN.

“We will pay particular attention to populations that frequently move across the borders of these three countries,” said Kamwa.

The campaign aims to create a polio barrier to prevent the spread of the virus in polio-free areas of the three countries.

WHO officials fear the re-emergence of polio in Tillabéry, which has been free of the virus for three years, because of its proximity to the borders Burkina Faso and Mali.

Burkina Faso and Mali have had no reported polio cases since 2004 and both are on their way to receiving certification as polio-free countries in October 2008. Niger meanwhile reported nine cases in 2008.

Tillabéry is 180km from Nigeria, where 21 percent of the world’s polio cases were reported in 2007 making it one of four countries in the world alongside India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, where polio is still endemic.

According to WHO’s Kamwa, 247 cases of polio have been reported in Nigeria since January 2008.

Polio mainly affects children under five years old, with one in 200 infections leading to irreversible paralysis, according to the WHO.

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