Polio alert in four countries

Southern African countries have gone on polio alert following a serious outbreak in Namibia and cases of a related disease in neighbouring Botswana.

Health ministry officials in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa said the surveillance would remain in force until the outbreak in Namibia was contained. The first of a series of three mass immunisation campaigns was launched in Namibia last month.

In Botswana, two cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP), a polio-related disease, have been confirmed and samples sent for laboratory analysis in South Africa. The illness, considered a symptom not always leading to polio, is characterised by sudden paralysis that affects the spine and limbs.

Dr Loeto Mazhani, deputy permanent secretary in the ministry of health, said on Tuesday there was no need for the public to panic, but advised parents to take their children for routine vaccination and maintain hygiene standards. The virus is spread through fecally contaminated water or food.

Botswana last suffered a polio outbreak in 2004, when the government responded with an immunisation programme that reached 90 percent of the population. Ten more suspected AFP cases have been detected but await laboratory confirmation.

Botswana's northern neighbour, Zimbabwe, has reactivated its disease surveillance system amid concerns over the high degree of cross-border movement, and has launched a public awareness campaign. Zimbabwe's last polio case was recorded in 1986.

Dr Simon Miti, permanent secretary in the Zambian ministry of health, said disease surveillance teams had been sent to the Namibian and Botswana borders to monitor the situation.

Dr Jantjie Taljaard of South Africa's University of Stellenbsoch Centre for Disease Control told IRIN there was a possibility that the poliovirus could spread beyond Namibia, "But this depends on the disease surveillance and control capacities of individual countries. Those with high immunisation rates and good detection systems, like South Africa, are least threatened."

He added the strain in Namibia - which originated in India, and emerged in Angola last year - was uncommon in that it affected adults as well as children.

Namibian health minister Dr Richard Kamwi said this week that recorded polio cases had risen from 167 to 178 since the end of the first round of immunisation late last month. Seventeen deaths have been recorded since the outbreak was detected in May.

Over two million people were reached during the first round, including tourists and foreigners, mainly Zambians, Batswana and Angolans from border communities who attended the immunisation campaign. The second round will run from 18 to 20 July, while the third and final round will target children under five from 20 to 24 August.