The Gambia’s ministry of health has issued a statement declaring an outbreak of polio virus while announcing a launch of vaccination campaign for children 0-59 months.

The ministry said it received cases at Tallinding Daru Salam, Kotu and Banjul after an environmental surveillance to supplement the traditional polio surveillance system (Acute Flaccid Paralysis – AFP).

This environmental surveillance system is being implemented in three sites where samples are collected routinely every two weeks at Tallinding Daru Salam, Kotu and Banjul sewage system.

“Samples collected from both the AFP cases and environmental surveillance are sent to the regional polio laboratory in Dakar for analysis. One of the samples collected from Banjul sewage system in February 2024 tested positive for circulating Vaccine derived polio virus.

“The results further showed that the virus is 99.9% linked to a virus in Guinea Conakry. Many other countries are already affected by this type of virus in the sub region. Following the WHO declaration of polio eradication in Africa, a single positive case detected from humans, or the environment is considered an outbreak. Therefore, as per International Health Regulation requirements and Polio outbreak response Standard Operating Procedures, this single case of circulating Vaccine Derived Polio virus type 2 (cVDPV2) from the environment is being declared as an outbreak in The Gambia,” it said.

“The Ministry of Health, going by the above requirements, officially informed the Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners in the country such as UNICEF and WHO about this outbreak. 

“The Gambia has one of the best immunisation programmes in the sub-region, thanks to parents and caregivers for being receptive to these services. 

“While we plan for vaccination response shortly, we have enhanced our surveillance system to increase its sensitivity and quality in polio surveillance. There is no need for alarm as no human case of paralytic polio has been detected. We are preparing for at least two massive supplementary polio vaccination rounds for all children 0-59 months in each round.

“Our goal is to vaccinate all children 0-59 months in The Gambia. We implore all parents and caregivers to continue taking their children for routine vaccination and cooperate with our vaccinators during the vaccination campaigns to enable us to end this outbreak soonest,” the ministry added.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba