Polio outbreak a setback for Namibia

Health officials in Namibia say initial tests indicate the country is experiencing an outbreak of polio.

The outbreak which has been confirmed in three of the country's 13 regions, in Katutura, near Windhoek the capital, to the south in the Karas Region and to the north in the Otjozondjupa Region.

The death toll from the debilitating illness now stands at 7 and 27 others have been paralysed since mid-May.

Since 1990, children have been vaccinated against polio and this latest outbreak is a setback for the country whose last polio outbreak was reported in 1995.

Dr. Kalumbi Shangula, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Services, says all the cases are being treated in isolation at Katutura State Hospital and Windhoek Central Hospital.

Shangula says results obtained from stool, urine and blood specimens by a laboratory in South Africa, accredited by the World Health Organisation (WHO), indicated an outbreak of the poliovirus 1 (PV1) Wild Type.

Of the 11 specimens collected from 11 patients in Katutura and Windhoek State Hospital, it seems five have been confirmed cases of wild polio virus Type 1.

One of the specimens was obtained from the first case, reported on 7 May in Aranos, a small town south of Windhoek and the infected person remains on ventilator support at a private hospital in the city.

Shangula says five of the infected people died in hospital and two were reported dead on arrival.

The symptoms included back pain, headache, neck ache, fever, weakness of the lower limbs, paralysis, gastric pain, chest pain, diarrhoea and vomiting.

Out of a total of 38 cases reported four were later discounted as suffering from other conditions; most of the infected were aged between 24 and 29 and it is thought they missed out on under-five vaccination campaigns carried out since 1990, when Namibia gained independence.

The government now plans a mass public education and polio vaccination campaign which will begin as soon as possible.

Despite intensified efforts on the part of the World Health Organisation to eradicate the disease, polio has resurfaced in Africa in recent years.

It was reported last year in Angola and Madagascar and in 2003 a polio outbreak in Nigeria spread to neighbouring countries and put 15 million children at risk.

To bring the outbreak under control involved a massive immunisation campaign across five countries in west and central Africa.

A country can only be declared polio-free after an independent committee has certified that there have been no polio cases for three consecutive years.