 and our news from other parts of Africa. Health authorities in Mozambique have declared a polio outbreak in the country. The declaration today follows the confirmation of a child in the country's north eastern province who got paralyzed by the disease according to the World Health Organization, WHO. The case in Mozambique is the second important case of polio in southern Africa this year following a case discovered in Malawi in mid-February. Sequencing indicates that the case in Mozambique is linked to a strain of polio spreading in Pakistan in 2019, similar to the case reported in Malawi earlier this year. Mozambique declared a polio outbreak on Wednesday. After detecting its first case of the virus in nearly three decades, the World Health Organization has said that marks the second important case of wild polio virus in southern Africa this year following an outbreak in Malawi in February. Polio invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours. There is no cure for polio, but infection can be prevented through vaccination. The WHO said the latest case was found in a child living in the northeast in Tete region who began experiencing the onset of paralysis towards the end of March. Dr. Matsudiso Moeti, the WHO's regional director for Africa, said in a statement that the detection of another case of wild polio virus in Africa is greatly concerning. She added that it shows how dangerous this virus is and how quickly it can spread. In recent decades, there's been a dramatic reduction in cases worldwide due to intense national and regional immunisation campaigns. To halt the spread of the virus, the WHO is supporting vaccination campaigns targeting millions of children in southern Africa. The continent was declared free of indigenous wild polio in 2020 after all wild forms of the virus were eliminated. Genomic sequencing suggests the newly confirmed case is linked to a strain that began circulating in Pakistan in 2019 and is similar to the case in Malawi. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.