The Ministry of Health intends to vaccinate 5.1 million children against polio by the end of the year, an official source announced.

A Vaccination will start this month and aims to respond to the outbreak of this infection in neighboring Malawi, said Health Minister Armindo Tiago, quoted by Diário Notícias.

"When there is an occurrence of genetically similar cases in a country, the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies this as a circulation of this virus variant. If only one case is reported, eventually the recommendation is that it is a public health emergency and the country should take measures to vaccinate its population," explained Armindo Tiago.

The provinces of Niassa, Tete, Zambezia, Manica, Cabo Delgado, and Nampula will be the first to be covered by the campaign, which expects to vaccinate at least 2 million children up to age 05 between March and April.

Data from the Ministry of Health indicates that the provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado have already registered cases of polio, although it is a different variant from the one circulating in Malawi.

Mozambique has remained without a record of this infection for 25 years, according to information from the Ministry of Health.