Malawi to launch polio immunization campaign after one case found

A child receives an oral polio vaccine at a clinic organized by UNICEF, whose workers have gone to Niger, along with experts from the country and the World Health Organization to investigate several polio cases AFP/File

The Malawi government announced Thursday that it would launch a nationwide polio vaccination campaign next month after it was discovered that a four-year-old girl had contracted the disease, the first case of polio in Malawi in 30 years. President Lazarus Chakwera has declared a national emergency.

"The upcoming polio vaccination campaign...will target around 2.9 million children across the country," Malawi's health ministry director, Queen Dube, told newswire Agence France Presse, adding that they were targeting children aged under five years.