Burundi government announced on Thursday that the East African country was polio-free as the world celebrates World Polio Day observed annually on October 24th.
The country’s Ministry of Health held a press conference commending the efforts made in the fight against this virus and to renew commitments to its eradication.
A case detected for the poliovirus constitutes an alert and a public health emergency requiring a vaccination campaign for this disease in the affected region.
The representative of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) delegated by WHO, said that even if Burundi is one of the polio-free countries, it must remain vigilant, because there is always a risk of resurgence of cases in the region.
The number of reported cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus has declined in the African region over the past 12 months, from 585 to 239 cases, and there has been an increase in the number of affected African countries from 25 to 30, hence this year’s theme “Towards the eradication of polio in Africa”.
The Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Pascal Ndayongeje, announced that progress is being observed although vaccination coverage is below 90%.
Regarding the issue of water shortages, which means that some people are getting water of questionable hygiene, which can be a source of poliomyelitis, a disease that is caught by drinking contaminated water, he responded that general hygiene is important, but the most important thing is to vaccinate children.
“Burundi reported a case of polio on March 17, 2023, and since then, 24 other cases of poliovirus have been recorded. Among the 24 cases, 22 were identified as circulating, so these are cases with links to other cases reported elsewhere. Two cases were isolated in humans while 20 cases were isolated as part of environmental polio surveillance. The last case dates back to June 16, 2023,” said Bellejoie Louise Iriwacu, technical deputy director at the PEV, the Expanded Program on Immunization (PEV).
She mentioned “low coverage of polio vaccines, due in part to rumors circulating against this vaccine.”
The movement of the population and the lack of cross-border coordination which constitutes the risk of new importation of this disease are the challenges mentioned by different partners in this fight.
Polio is a highly contagious viral disease. It invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a few hours, most often irreversible paralysis of the lower limbs and death.
Symptoms are flu-like: fever, fatigue and headaches accompanied by vomiting, stiff neck and pain in the limbs.
