Gaborone – As the African region marks one year since the last confirmed detection of wild poliovirus type 1, Ministers of Health and other health leaders gathering for the Seventy-third session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for Africa today pledged to intensify efforts to end all forms of the virus.

The region’s last confirmed case of wild poliovirus, linked to a strain circulating in Pakistan, was reported in August 2022 in Mozambique’s Tete province. A total of nine cases were detected in both Mozambique and neighbouring Malawi, where an outbreak was confirmed in February 2022. In a coordinated response, more than 45 million children across five southern Africa countries were vaccinated against the virus.