Malawi begins nationwide polio immunisation campaign

Health Surveillance Assistant Matilda Mulupwa, right, gives a dose of the polio vaccine to a baby, on the first day of the vaccine campaign in Lilongwe on March 21 [Amos Gumulira / AFP]

Blantyre, Malawi – At the Gateway Clinic in Blantyre, Malawi’s second-biggest city, a sense of fulfilment overwhelmed Gloria Kasula after she had her three-year-old child vaccinated against polio.

“I always want to put the well being of my child first at all times,” the 31-year-old fruit seller told Al Jazeera on Monday, her baby nestled on her back. “That’s why I had to put everything aside and come here to have my child fully protected because right now we are at a very scary moment.”