Minister of Health, Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, has launched polio vaccine at Chileka Community Day Secondary School in Lilongwe, targeting 2.9 million under five children.

Chiponda called upon parents and guardians to consider this jab as a must in order to protect the children saying polio spreads fast and can kill or cause permanent paralysis.

“This is the first of polio cases detected in Malawi since 1992. UNICEF is working closely with Government and partners to do everything possible to stop the virus in it’s tracks,” she said.

The campaign which starts Monday, March 21 will run until July, 2022. Three more rounds will follow in the coming months.

Government, UNICEF, World Health Organization, and other partners say similar campaigns will soon start in the neighbouring Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.

People, most commonly, contract polio when they drink water that is contaminated with the human dungs of someone who carries the virus. Children under the age of five and those living in areas with poor sanitation are most at risk.