The Zomba District Health Office (DHO), together with the Zomba District Council, is set to roll out a door-to-door polio vaccination campaign after the Ministry of Health revealed in January 2026 that poliovirus type 2 had been detected in Blantyre.
Zomba DHO spokesman Arnold M’ndalira, says the five-day aggressive vaccination campaign is set to commence from 10th to 14th February 2026, targeting children who are 0 to 10 years of age.
Speaking at a media briefing in Zomba on Wednesday, M’Ndalira noted that while polio is a deadly disease, the virus spreads easily, particularly during the rainy season.
“As a way of prevention and it’s in WHO’s standards that if a country has a polio case it means we have to do a prevention as you know polio is a disease which is easily transmitted from one person to another especially in this rainy season,” M’ndalira explained.
He further urged parents to get their children vaccinated as the campaign will also go together with active Surveillance and environmental testing in the households to detect signs and symptoms of Polio type 2.
With support from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations International Children Fund (UNICEF) “Our Surveillance team is on the ground taking samples to make sure Polio is eradicated in Malawi” he added.
Commenting on the matter, Chairperson for Zomba DHO health committee, Dereck M’bale, appealed to the public in general to attend the sensitisation campaigns for them to get insights into the Polio Vaccine, Virus, and disease, and how to prevent the
On 27th January 2026 secretary for Health and Sanitation Dan Namalika said the Circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Virus type 2 (CVDP2) has been detected in the tested samples which came out positive in December 2025, and was also detected in one of the neighbouring countries,s and that risk assessment will be done as the country is working closely with the neighboring nations.
The Ministry of Health further says just like the Wild Polio Virus type 1 which was detected in 2022, the recent virus is also deadly and can cause Paralysis.
Before the recent resurgence, in May 2024 the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Malawi Polio-free, following more than two years of aggressive vaccination campaigns and contact tracing, surveillance, stool sampling, and environmental testing which revealed that there is no ongoing circulation of the virus.
Before the 2022 virus detection, the last polio case in Malawi was reported in 1992.
