The eighteenth polio vaccination campaign is being held in one hundred and nineteen districts. The risk of poliomyelitis spreading is increasing in Madagascar.
Circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) poliomyelitis is circulating and spreading in Madagascar. “cVDPV was detected in wastewater in canals in the regions of Analamanga, Boeny, Anosy, according to the results of environmental monitoring. Surveillance carried out at health centers has also revealed the existence of human cases,” said Dr. Rivomalala Rakotonavalona, director of the Expanded Vaccination Program at the Ministry of Public Health, yesterday.
A polio vaccination campaign is being carried out in one hundred and nineteen districts from Thursday to date. The goal is to vaccinate more than five million children under the age of five against this disease. “Scientifically speaking, as the child grows, the surface area for contacting the poliomyelitis virus in their digestive tract increases. The aim of this campaign is, therefore, to cut the chain of transmission of the virus and to strengthen the immunity of children”, underlines this official.
Madagascar has backed down in the fight against this disabling disease. Madagascar had been declared a “polio-free country” in June 2018, after the epidemics experienced in 2014-2015. However, the health authorities in Madagascar notified the Global Polio Eradication Initiative on April 28, 2021, of three cases of poliovirus poliomyelitis. circulating of vaccine origin type 1 (cVDPV1), including two in the Southeast in 2020 and one in the Southwest in 2021, according to Vidal. A source at the Ministry of Public Health said that several cases of poliomyelitis have been detected recently. Hence the need for this campaign.
The drop in vaccination coverage during the coronavirus epidemic has favored the reappearance of this disease. The Ministry of Public Health is challenging to vaccinate 95% of targets in this campaign to immunize as many children as possible against poliomyelitis. Another polio vaccination campaign is scheduled to take place in a month.