A community health worker shows a polio vaccine dose before delivering it to a child to fight against polio virus which is highly contagious and can cause paralysis and lifelong disability, or even death, during the polio immunization campaign in Kiamako, Nairobi on July 19, 2021. - Three million children across 13 counties of Kenya are to be vaccinated against polio by the Government, UNICEF, WHO and partners, after the virus was confirmed to be circulating. (Photo by SIMON MAINA / AFP)
Gambian Health Minister Ahmadou Lamin Samateh warned on Wednesday that polio is circulating in the tiny West African nation, pledging “massive” vaccination campaigns to stamp out the virus.
In a statement, Samateh said that samples taken from sewage in the capital Banjul and the beach-resort area of Kotu had tested positive for poliovirus type 2.
He explained that this means the much-feared virus is circulating in the country of some 2 million people.
Samateh added that the government is planning “at least two massive supplementary vaccination campaigns” to curb the outbreak.
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These campaigns will target all children aged under five, he said.
“We implore all parents to cooperate with our vaccinators during the vaccination campaigns to enable us to end this outbreak,” the health minister said.
Polio is an infectious disease caused by a virus that infects the nervous system and can lead to irreversible paralysis.
It mainly harms young children, but can be prevented with a highly effective and very cheap vaccine.
Last August, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that wild polio virus had been eradicated in all 47 countries in its Africa region, after four years with no new cases and a major vaccination drive among children.
The Gambia, a poor former British colony surrounded by Senegal, had been declared free of polio in 2004.
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