Following the detections of vaccine-derived poliovirus in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization and its partners are planning vaccination campaigns to reach children who are unvaccinated or undervaccinated as their top priority for polio eradication.
After a child is immunized with the oral poliovirus vaccine, remnants of the weakened poliovirus can leave the child’s body through feces. Other children can then be exposed to the virus through contamination. And if population immunity is low and the virus is allowed to circulate, over time it can change into circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2, or cVDPV2, which can cause paralysis.
In Burundi, health authorities declared an outbreak of cVDPV2, after confirming one case of polio. This was the country’s first such detection in more than three decades. In DRC, an outbreak was declared after the virus was detected in stool samples from six children in the eastern Tanganyika and South Kivu provinces.
About the author
Paul Adepojupauladepoju
Paul Adepoju is a Nigeria-based Devex Contributing Reporter, academic, and author. He covers health and tech in Africa for leading local and international media outlets including CNN, Quartz, and The Guardian. He's also the founder of healthnews.africa. He is completing a doctorate in cell biology and genetics and holds several reporting awards in health and tech.
