Prognosis
Malawi Has its First Wild Polio Case in Three Decades
- Disease is considered endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan
- World Health Organization declared Africa polio-free in 2020
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The first wild polio virus case in 30 years has been confirmed in Malawi, sparking concern that the disease that causes paralysis could spread from the only two countries where it is endemic, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Malawian case in the capital, Lilongwe, has been tied to a strain of the virus found in an outbreak in Pakistan’s Sindh province in 2019, the Global Polio Laboratory Network said in a statement on Thursday. The samples from the three-year-old girl were collected in late November after onset of paralysis.