Somalia successfully stops spread of type 3 polio strain-WHO

GOOBJOOG NEWS|SOMALIA: Somalia has successfully contained the spread of type three polio following robust vaccination campaigns and reporting, the World Health organisation (WH) has said.

WHO Director of Polio Eradication for WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region Dr. Hamid Jafari said in a statement Monday the ‘Vaccine-derived poliovirus type 3 (cVDPV3) has been successfully stopped, with no international spread.’

According to the global health body, the last case of the type three strain was recorded in Somalia in 2018. The strain paralysed seven children.

“Despite extensive disease surveillance measures, no cVDPV3 has been identified since 7 September 2018, when the last child developed paralysis.,” the statement read in part.

The 2018 cVDPV3 outbreak was part of a 2-strain polio outbreak in Somalia at that time, along with circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2. Both strains emerge and paralyse children in under-immunized populations – places where not enough children have consistently had access to polio vaccines.

Closing a polio outbreak is a formal process steered by a detailed checklist of surveillance indicators that must be met in order to show that the virus is not just hiding in a far-flung pocket but has truly disappeared, WHO said.