Over 80 Million Reached As Africa Trailblazes Novel Polio Vaccine

80 million children have been vaccinated with the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) in six countries in Africa,

Photo: AfricaNews.com

More than 80 million children have been vaccinated with the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) in six countries in Africa, the world’s first region to rollout of the vaccine just months after the World Health Organization (WHO) gave it Emergency Use Listing status in November 2020.

Nigeria became the first country in the world to use nOPV2 to tackle an outbreak in March 2021, vaccinating 7 million children in six states.

By September, Benin, Congo, Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone had also rolled out the vaccine. Africa was certified free of wild polio in August 2020, but outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived polio type 2 are still being reported.

“The nOPV2 brings significant advantages in tackling polio outbreaks and Nigeria has worked closely with the global polio partners to rollout the vaccine. With swift outbreak response and effective tools and measures, our path to ending all forms of polio once and for all is clearer,” said Dr. Tunji Funsho, chair of Rotary’s National PolioPlus Committee, Nigeria.

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