Influencers, misinformation and aid cuts: the fight to halt polio in Malawi
Community leaders and influencers have worked hard in Malawi to overcome vaccine hesitancy. Photo by Kenneth Jali / The Associated Press
The Guardian
As a seven-year-old boy is treated for polio at a hospital in Malawi, the country has launched a major vaccination campaign to stem an outbreak of the disease.
The effort in Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries and badly hit by the aid cuts, has seen an astonishing 1.3 million children already vaccinated against the disease in just four days after emergency supplies were airlifted in by the World Health Organization (WHO) just over a week ago.
Malawi declared the outbreak after the virus was detected in two “environmental samples” taken from two sewage plants in Blantyre, the country’s second-largest city and where the only known victim lives.
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