Polio
remains a threat in Nigeria as over 100,000 child are yet to be immunised
against the disease in the northeastern part of country, Minister of Health,
Isaac Adewole, says.
The minister
said this is despite the government making considerable progress in
immunisation programmes in the region.
Mr Adewole
stated this at the annual meeting of African Regional Certification Commission
for Poliomyelitis Eradication, ARCC, in Abuja on Monday.
The five-day
meeting is being attended by participants from across Africa and development
partners.
They will be
reviewing the progress and update reports prepared by Kenya, Equatorial Guinea,
Guinea Bissau, Angola, South Sudan, Central Africa republic, Mauritania and
Nigeria in polio eradication activities.
This will
include national preparedness and response plans to polio events/outbreaks; and
updated reports on polio laboratory containment activities.
The minister
said in spite of the setback in Nigeria largely due to the Boko Haram
insurgency that makes some areas inaccessible to health officials, Africa has
made remarkable process towards eradicating poliomyelitis.
To back up
his claims, Mr Adewole said in 2012, the African region reported 128 wild
poliovirus (WPV) cases, which accounted for more than half of the global
burden.
But in 2013,
only about 76 cases were reported; 2014, about 17cases and no case was reported
in 2015.
“Nonetheless,
in 2016, after almost two years, four cases were confirmed from areas that were
under Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State in Nigeria and the outbreak was
successfully contained,” he said.
Mr Adewole
explained Nigeria remains on the list of polio endemic countries because some
areas in the northeast remain inaccessible to the polio programme.
The last
case of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) was reported 21 months ago in Monguno LGA, Borno
state.
Nigeria as
at 2016 was on the verge of being certified polio-free by the World Health
Organisation before the four new cases were reported.
This has
stalled the certification of Nigeria polio-free. Before a country is certified
free, it has to have recorded no case of polio for three consecutive years.
Before the
last discovery, Nigeria went 23 months without any confirmed case of WPV1
between July 2014 and July 2016.
However, the
minister said following the outbreak, government declared a state of emergency
and held a sub-regional emergency meeting of all governments in the Lake Chad
Basin.
“A close
collaboration with the military and civilian Joint Task Force in Borno has
facilitated increased accessibility to immunisation programme.
“An
estimated 71 percent of settlements in Borno have been accessed for vaccination
at least once,”he added.
Also
speaking at the event, the chairperson ARCC, Rose Leke, said to successfully
eradicate polio from the region, there is a need to strengthen surveillance in
most countries and high level of routine polio immunisation across boards.
This, she
said is necessary because polio can be imported across borders leading to a
resurgence of cases in other countries, especially if their children are poorly
immunised and have low immunity against the disease.
Ms Leke said
Nigeria can effectively eradicate polio with high surveillance and increased
levels of immunisation across the country.
“In spite of
the insecurity, Nigeria has done a lot. The northeastern area had vast risk but
the government has been able to go in and little by little it is closing up.
“There are
just about 100,000-200,000 children that are yet to be reached. We just have to
be careful and cannot say anything for now on when the country will be polio
free until we are certain we have covered up the remain region in the country,”
she said.
Ms Leke also
called on state governments to step up efforts in routine immunisation
programme, saying current efforts are still very low in Nigeria.
“State
governments need to collaborate with the (federal) government to achieve high
immunisation coverage. Some of them have not been cooperative, this has to
change.
“If the
community immunisation is low, the tendency of being infected with the virus is
very high. We can have importation of polio across the continent, so we want to
have quality surveillance and strengthen routine immunisation in many countries
that are not yet doing very well,” she said.
Speaking
with journalists, a participant, Oyewale Tomori, said Nigeria cannot boast of
eradicating polio until the high risk region in the North-east and borders are
effectively covered with polio immunisation.
He said
though the government has been doing a lot, there are still challenges in the
borders.
“Access to
most of the children is still a major problem. Though the government is
collaborating with the other governments of countries in the region, the
challenge of insecurity and lack of resources on their part has been stalling
progress.
“I cannot
say when we will be certified polio free and there should be no rush to
declare. Until we reach a zero case unit, we cannot relent,” he said.
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