Rotary District 9210 Governor urges momentum in fight against polio

Governor Chipara planting a tree at Lilongwe Vocational Training Centre

* As Malawi and the world marks the World Polio Day on 24th October, it is important to reflect on the strides we have made together with partners and governments in tackling this debilitating disease

Maravi Express

Gabriel Chipara, Governor of Rotary District 9210 — which comprises Rotary Clubs of Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe  and northern Mozambique — has appealed for continued vigilance and a renewed focus in the war against poliomyelitis (polio).

The Governor, who is on a visit to Malawi made the call on Tuesday when he made a courtesy call at Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA) and Lilongwe Vocational Training Centre — a rehabilitation centre for polio victims which is supported by Rotary Club of Lilongwe. 

“As Malawi and the world marks the World Polio Day on 24th October, it is important to reflect on the strides we have made together with partners and governments in tackling this debilitating disease,” Chipara said.

“Of course, reports of re-emergence of the disease in some parts of the world including Malawi is cause for concern and calls for renewed vigilance.”

Rotary, with generous support from partners particularly in the USA, built the MACOHA and the Lilongwe Vocational Training Centre, formerly named Malawi Against Polio (MAP), before handing it over to the Government.

Governor Chipara planted a tree at the Centre to mark the longstanding partnership between the institution and Rotary.

Before visiting MACOHA Centre, the governor inducted five new Paul Harris Fellows (PHFs) from Malawi during a fellowship meeting by Rotary Club of Lilongwe.

The governor said through generous giving by PHFs and others, Rotary is able to expand its charitable causes including campaigns against Polio and other challenges facing humanity. 

He encouraged more Malawian Rotarians to up their giving to support the work of the Rotary Foundation, which is supporting the less privileged in society.

World Polio Day highlights the global efforts to end the life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus and to raise awareness of the importance of polio vaccination to protect every child from this devastating disease.

It is also to celebrate the many parents, professionals and volunteers whose contributions make polio eradication achievable. To ensure a polio-free future for everyone, efforts must continue to maintain high immunization coverage, implement high-quality surveillance to detect any presence of the virus, and prepare to respond in the event of an outbreak.

In Malawi, the Ministry of Health rolled out nationwide mass polio immunization campaign from last year that reaped some positive fruits as millions of children have been reached with the vaccine.

The Capital City alone registered 1.3 million children in the second phase of the campaign this year as attested by Lilongwe District senior health promotion officer, Richard Mvula last month in an interview with Malawi News Agency (MANA).

Early this month, Ntchisi District Health Office (DHO) told MANA that it has vaccinated 161,287 children against a target of 157,692 children under the age of 15 in the supplementary polio vaccination campaign.

The number of children vaccinated against the targeted number translates into 102%, as reported by MANA quoting the district’s health promotion officer, Samson Mfuyeni, who attributed the success to proper planning by the DHO, district coordinating team and the cooperation from community members.

He also said they received positive support from traditional and religious leaders as well as community members towards the campaign, saying in the first phase, they vaccinated 199,717 children under the age of 15 against the same target of 157,692 — representing 126%.

Thus Mfuyeni applauded people in the district for welcoming the polio vaccination campaign and asked all caregivers of under-5 children to continue vaccinating their children in routine immunisation services provided in their areas, to prevent polio from reaching the district.

The Ministry of Health continues to encourage the parents to stop having negative thoughts about polio vaccination, saying they need to embrace the inoculation to save lives of the children.

The unwillingness by parents in different communities to allow their children from being vaccinated is because of different beliefs they have.

Mchinji DHO’s director of health & social services (DHSS), Dr Yohane Mwale told MANA last month that: “Some parents believe that polio vaccinations are just trying to reduce the population in the country while others believe that it is connected to Satanism, but all these are just false beliefs.”

The Ministry’s Chief Preventive Officer, Penjani Chunda also urged local leaders in Blantyre to be at the forefront in mobilising community members to vaccinate their eligible children, saying it is pathetic that some religious beliefs have been hindering vaccine uptake during the previous similar campaigns in the district.

He thus urged chiefs, religious & political leaders and other leaders in all communities to play a role in giving people the right information about vaccines.

“As long as the danger is there that is why we are still doing the vaccination,” he was quoted by MANA last month. “Last year in February, we had only one case, and then in 2023 we registered three cases which means the threat is still there and children’s immunity needs to be boosted.

“The reason we have these series of campaigns is to ensure that children are getting enough vaccine doses and their immunity is boosted against the virus.

“There was one case of world polio virus type 2 isolated from environmental samples and it showed there is danger out there,” Chunda was quoted as saying.

What Malawi Ministry of Health is advocating is in line with the objective of the World Polio Day  — to keep the momentum alive towards global efforts of a polio-free world and honor the tireless contributions of those on the frontlines in the fight to eradicate polio from every corner of the globe.

Through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), global Centre for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) works with partners to eradicate polio and end the suffering from this devastating disease.

According to the CDC, poliovirus was present in 125 countries in 1988, paralyzing an estimated 1,000 children per day, prompting the year, the GPEI to be launched, with a goal of eradicating polio worldwide.

Over the past 35 years, GPEI has made remarkable progress towards this goal, says the CDC ahead of the World Polio Day on Tuesday next week, adding that cases of wild poliovirus have decreased by more than 99% — from 350,000 cases per year to fewer than 10 annual cases of wild polio.

“The disease remains consistently present in just two countries – Afghanistan and Pakistan — but challenges remain. As long as wild poliovirus continues to circulate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, all countries are at risk of wild poliovirus being imported.

“Outbreaks of poliovirus variants — which emerge when not enough children are vaccinated against polio — present an additional and pressing challenge in multiple countries.

“On World Polio Day, CDC commemorates this progress and joins its GPEI partners in the call to overcome the barriers to Make Polio History once and for all.”