Mozambique has detected its first case of wild poliovirus in three decades, following an outbreak in neighbouring Malawi in February. The AFP new agency quotes the WHO as saying that lab tests showed that the Mozambique case was linked to a strain that had circulated in Pakistan and led to the case reported in Malawi which prompted southern African countries to launch a vaccination blitz. “As long as a single child remains infected with poliovirus, children in all countries are at risk of contracting the disease,” the WHO says on its website, explaining that “the poliovirus can easily be imported into a polio-free country and can spread rapidly amongst unimmunized populations.”
