Acting Muchinga Province Health Director David Silweya has called on parents to be on the lookout for any signs and symptoms of polio in their children below the age of five .
Acting Muchinga Province Health Director David Silweya says the fact that Muchinga has not recorded any case so far , it should not make parents relax with measures that prevent polio virus in children.
Polio virus is typically spread in the faeces of an infected person and is picked through contaminated water and food and multiples in the intestine.
He said during the last polio vaccination exercises, the province received good community response from parents.
The Provincial Health Director (PHD) added that the overwhelming response that the sector got from the door -to -door strategy ,made it possible for the province to surpass its target in the exercise.
” If you compare it to COVID-19 vaccination, polio vaccination received good response in the province as parents in various communities brought their children eligible to be vaccinated ,” he said.
The 98 percent that was recorded during the vaccination exercise in the province can only be meaningful if parent adhere to the strict polio preventative measures such as practicing good hygiene and ensuring that their children are fully immunized against polio among others.
He said Muchinga Province is elated with the output and it’s cooperating partners that came on board to support the ministry.
Zambia was declared a polo virus risk country after the neighboring country Malawi recorded an outbreak of wild poliovirus type 1 since Africa was declared free of the indigenous world polio in August 2020.
A disease that was eradicated decades ago is now coming back under the so called new dawn govt. Useless failures
The return of polio is not due to political change. We should just be alert. I commend this PS’s pro-active advice and hope the government will have a practical plan. As far as I know the only known case of polio in Southern Africa has been in Malawi
You are not here in zambia with us. So you have no authority to comment