LAGOS, Nigeria

Africa has recorded 134 new polio cases in at least seven counties, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday.

WHO regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, in a message to mark World Polio Day 2024 said the circulating variant polio type 2 has been found in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.

In 2024 alone, 134 polio type 2 cases were detected as of Sept. 5, Moeti disclosed.

She said significant improvement in polio eradication has been recorded in the southern African region with no case of poliovirus reported in South Africa since 2022, hoping for an end to the virus in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.

Moeti commended the unity among the countries in the Lake Chad Basin and Sahel to tackle "a new and pressing challenge." She urged countries to step up the campaign to end polio on the continent.

World Polio Day is celebrated annually on Oct. 24, calling for more action in the fight against polio.