A large-scale vaccination campaign for 2.9 million children is planned in Malawi in response to the first detected wild-type polio case in Africa in several years.
The UN children's fund Unicef announced on Thursday that it would procure 6.9 million vaccine doses and also wants to upgrade the existing logistical infrastructure in the landlocked country for transport and storage.
The purchase of 223 new refrigerators for the vaccines alone is planned.
"The re-emergence of wild polio in Malawi, several decades after it was last detected, is of great concern," said Unicef Country Representative Rudolf Schwenk.
First polio case in Africa since 2016
The vaccination campaign, in which children under five are given four doses each, is considered challenging because Malawi is also struggling with the consequences of the corona pandemic at the same time.
The type 1 wild polio virus was discovered last month in a child in the capital Lilongwe.
It was the first wild polio outbreak on the continent since 2016. Laboratory tests have shown that the virus was apparently imported from Pakistan's Sindh province - it is similar to the type there.
Malawi announced its last polio case in 1992 and has been completely polio-free since 2005.
The continent received official WHO status as a polio-free continent in August 2020, after at least four years without a polio-free case on the continent.
Polio, or polio, is a contagious, infectious disease that can cause paralysis and death.
It can cause permanent paralysis, especially in small children.
The highly contagious virus is often spread through contaminated water.
So far there is no cure for polio.
With the exception of Afghanistan and Pakistan, all countries in the world have so far defeated wild polioviruses.