![coronavirus]()
Just days after the World Health Organization announced that Africa is free of wild polio virus, they had to announce that a vaccine-derived poliovirus Type 2 (cVDPV2) is circulating in Sudan, Chad and Cameroon. A total of 13 children came down with polio after being vaccinated for it, with two of them being paralyzed (acute flaccid paralysis), the WHO said.
Additionally, the WHO said 11 more cases have been confirmed in Red Sea, West Darfur, East Darfur, White Nile, River Nile and Gezira.
According to the Polio Global Eradication Initiative, cVDPVs are mutated viruses that vaccinated children can excrete for several months after receiving the oral polio vaccine. While cVDPVs are rare, the solution is the same as for wild polio: Vaccinate every child several times with oral polio vaccine, the Initiative says. It takes two or three rounds of the supplementary vaccinations to stop the outbreaks.
Use of the oral polio vaccine was discontinued in the U.K. in 2004 and in the U.S. in 2000, according to The Guardian.
SOURCES:
World Health Organization August 25, 2020
World Health Organization September 1, 2020
The Guardian September 2, 2020
Polio Global Eradication Initiative September 2020