The World Health Organization recently said in a statement that the African country of Malawi has declared an outbreak of polio, and a 3-year-old girl infected with the poliovirus was found in the capital Lilongwe. It is understood that the young child was paralyzed in November last year. Virus sequencing in February confirmed that she was infected with "wild polio-1 virus." This is the first time that wild poliovirus has been detected in Africa in more than 5 years.
WHO said laboratory analysis showed that the poliovirus strain found in Malawi was linked to a strain of poliovirus that has been spreading in Pakistan. According to the Global Plan to End Polio, the only countries where poliovirus is still endemic today are Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the discovery of wild poliovirus (WPV1) outside of these two countries raises "serious concerns".
Polio, commonly known as polio, is an acute infectious disease caused by the poliovirus that primarily affects children, especially children under 5 years of age. The virus invades the nervous system of patients and can cause permanent paralysis within a few hours. Polio cannot be treated, but it can be prevented with the help of vaccination.
(Editor: Xia Dingwei)