At a hospital where a 7-year-old boy is being treated for polio. MalawiThe country has launched a mass vaccination campaign to stem the spread of the disease.
Efforts in Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries and hit hard by aid cuts, have already vaccinated an astonishing 1.3 million children just four days after emergency supplies were airlifted in. world health organization (WHO) About a week ago.
Malawi declared an outbreak after the virus was detected in two “environmental samples” taken from two sewage treatment plants in Blantyre, the country’s second-largest city and where the only victim lives.
Because polio is highly contagious, spreads silently, and many people have very mild symptoms, even a single polio infection is considered dangerous, especially in areas where vaccination rates are low. The disease causes permanent and irreversible paralysis or death in a small number of people, especially children. There are no cases of infectious disease in Malawi. Wild poliovirus after 2022.
It’s the latest setback for global efforts to eradicate polio, which 28 years ago was annoyingly close to eradicating polio when only 2,880 cases remained in 20 countries. Vaccines administered by drop into a child’s mouth. But the virus continues to stubbornly persist in some of the world’s most remote regions.
Dr. Jamal Ahmed, WHO’s polio chief, said: severe warning He said this earlier this year. “Remember that eradication is all or nothing. Either it’s eradicated, or it comes back completely.”
People trying to finally eradicate this disease Millions were killed and paralyzed People around the world are fighting on two fronts: against the virus itself and for trust in the communities where the virus is making its last stand.
In Malawi, community health workers visited nurseries, primary schools and homes in Blantyre’s Ndirande township, and the Guardian spoke to six young mothers aged between 21 and 31. Half of them knew nothing about the disease, while the remaining three were cautious about having their children vaccinated.
“My child is four years old, but I don’t know much about vaccines and I have no interest in vaccinating my child. I feel that my child has received enough vaccines in his life,” says Frida Seva, 21.
At Chisime Elementary School, dozens of children lined up to receive their drops. health Officials contacted students’ teachers in advance to obtain parental consent for vaccination. Of these, about one in 10 remained seated at their desks because they did not have their parents’ permission.
“There are reasons like religion, but for some parents it’s just a choice,” says teacher Georgina Donasi.
Communities in Malawi are actively participating in this campaign, with social movement activists, health workers, religious leaders, and traditional authorities working to provide advice, correct misinformation, and reassure families.
Their efforts paid off: in Ndirande, a township on the outskirts of Blantyre, the targeted initiative has seen 84 initially reluctant families take in 45 families.
This is a common experience for polio workers in polio hubs, especially in border areas. Afghanistan Wild viruses remain prevalent in Pakistan, and communities are proving essential in building the trust necessary for successful vaccination.
Sheeba Afghani has stood by mothers, adamant that her children will not be vaccinated against polio. “You can give her any argument you want,” says Afghani, senior manager of UNICEF’s polio eradication program. “It doesn’t matter. Then you have a local influencer come to you and say, ‘Please vaccinate,’ and she just hands the child over.”
“I’m like, ‘Wow.’ We taught her a lot of logical, scientific things.” [argument]. All information possible. ”
Social media also fuels misinformation, Afghans say. In the past, if a death was incorrectly linked to vaccination, “we would call local influencers, doctors on duty, etc. to that particular family and respond locally,” she says.
“Now, information will be out there on social media even before we arrive in the community,” she says.
Afghans say many of the areas where polio is endemic also suffer from insecurity and poor health infrastructure, meaning that people have little trust in the state and that mistrust may persist.
The Malawi outbreak is the latest threat. A sporadic outbreak of mutated poliovirus (also known as circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus), which occurs when the attenuated virus used in the oral polio vaccine is excreted in someone’s feces.
In areas with poor sanitation, the virus can begin to spread from person to person. This is helpful initially and extends your protection. But in areas with low vaccination rates, the virus can mutate and cause paralysis. there were 225 cases reported last year.
Misinformation or disinformation is Rated as the two biggest threats Vaccination campaigns are particularly vulnerable as infections rise around the world in the coming years.
“The same misinformation can end up in different places and play out very differently,” says Professor Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “In some cases it rolls off a duck’s back, but in other cases it can disrupt the entire program and cause serious problems.”
When it comes to polio, she says, the very words “vaccine-derived” encourage very innocent misinformation. “It makes people think that if you get the vaccine, you can get polio, but that’s not actually the case.”
U.S. leaders – including President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. question vaccination That could be harmful, Larson said. “The following suggestions were made: Polio was no longer important..
“It was very difficult, but one of our challenges with the internet and social media is that people end up hearing part of the story,” she says. “There’s a lot of misplaced stuff coming out of the United States right now that’s really causing confusion. And when there’s uncertainty, it’s a breeding ground for rumors.”
In 2019, Staged video of children collapsing After polio vaccination forced a halt to the program in Pakistan. The video caused panic, clinics were set on fire, thousands of children were rushed to hospitals by their parents, and one health worker and two police officers were killed.
Afghanistan, where half of the cases of wild poliovirus were recorded last year, has a unique challenge, with its people fearful of their government’s directives. The Taliban have stopped women from working, mothers are locked in closed rooms and girls are not attending school and isolated from vaccination teams. I can’t go on an outreach drive. All they can do is lobby the government for policy changes.
Money is also an issue. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative saw funding cut last year by major donor countries such as the United States and Britain. reduce aid spending. About our strategy for 2022-29 facing a $1.7 billion ($1.3 billion) funding shortfallthe initiative said it would Unable to respond “on a large scale” Address all outbreaks, as happened in Malawi this month.
Dr. Mike Chisema, Immunization Program Manager at Malawi’s Ministry of Health, said: “Funding space has really shrunk, beyond the emergency funds that may exist at any given time, impacting a number of services that we simultaneously provide in emergencies that we face time and time again.
“We want to mount a coordinated and systematic response to ensure that children are protected and that we do not create children with disabilities that could affect the country’s productivity in the future,” he says.
The polio outbreak comes at a time when Malawi, which accounts for 55% of total health spending, is in crisis. funded by donorshas also been affected by large-scale aid funding cuts.
“There may not be enough funding, but there is always something that will prompt countries to respond, whether it’s procuring vaccines, providing services, actually administering vaccinations, or making sure that vaccine logistics are in place so that vaccines are available even in the last mile,” Chisema said.
“Every time we have an incident, we tend to start a massive response because we don’t want to see any more incidents. So we want to control the incident at the source. We’re testing weekly in some places, and biweekly in others.”
“And we continue to look for these cases in the community and we encourage the reporting of such cases because we want to make sure there are no more such cases,” he added.
If Malawi’s efforts appear to be gaining traction, the UNICEF team found that vaccination agreements in some areas may be conditional on either buy-in from local leaders or families having access to something else, such as food or other types of medical care.
Afghans say polio vaccination boycotts are often led by people who actually support the program. “And although they are quite conflicted, their primary loyalty is to the community. And they have greater challenges there.”
Her team hired “micro-influencers” accused of challenging online misinformation and installed a dashboard on the wall of its New York headquarters with the output of software that scours social media for mentions of polio and vaccinations. You can quickly respond to spikes that indicate false rumors may be spreading in advance of a planned campaign.
Malawi continues its vaccination drive and hopes to protect children. “It is critical that we work well with stakeholders, the communities who are the beneficiaries of this important response,” adds Chisema. “[Otherwise] People die because polio can erode their breathing muscles. Malawi has a vast history with polio. ”
Ruth Kutaombe holds an 8-month-old baby boy at Marabada Health Center in Ndirande. She is adamantly in favor of vaccination. “It will protect him from illness,” she says.
“I went to the hospital for my regular under-five clinic and when I heard they were giving the vaccine, I decided to get it vaccinated.”
