Blantyre District Health Office has today launched the fourth round of the National Oral Polio Vaccine campaign as authorities intensify efforts to stop the circulation of poliovirus in the country.

Chief Preventive Officer at Blantyre District council, Innocent Mvula, says the latest round follows the detection of poliovirus through a polio case and environmental surveillance, which found positive samples.

“Moving forward, what we want to see after all these rounds of the campaign is that there is no polio virus circulating here in Malawi,” Mvula said.

Malawi had gone about 30 years without polio, but the recent detection of the virus has prompted a series of vaccination campaigns aimed at preventing further transmission.

Mvula says the fourth round is targeting about 527,000 children. He says the initial target from round zero was 360,000 children, which the campaign managed to reach.

He says the campaigns have generally surpassed their targets, although assessments of previous rounds identified gaps that need to be addressed to ensure that every child is reached.

Mvula has also urged a communities to disregard misconceptions surrounding the repeated vaccination campaigns, saying the multiple rounds are necessary to strengthen efforts to stop the virus from circulating.

“There are a lot of misconceptions out there, especially now people are asking why there are all these rounds,” he said.

Mvula says the latest round will also focus on addressing the risk of cross-border transmission of poliovirus.

“With this fourth round, we would like to deal away with cross-border infection,” he said.