17 polio variants recorded in 8 states – NPHCDA

A total of  17 circulating variant poliovirus type 2(cVPV2),  cases have been recorded  across 15 LGAs in  eight states, this year, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has said. The executive director of the agency, Dr Muyi Aina, made the disclosure on Tuesday in Abuja during the agency’s first quarter media briefing. He […]

A total of  17 circulating variant poliovirus type 2(cVPV2),  cases have been recorded  across 15 LGAs in  eight states, this year, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has said.

The executive director of the agency, Dr Muyi Aina, made the disclosure on Tuesday in Abuja during the agency’s first quarter media briefing.

He said while Nigeria was declared Wild Polio Virus (WPV) free in 2020, it has, however, since 2021, been contending with the challenge of the cVPV2 – another form of the virus that has mutated over time and started spreading.

He said 12 of the 17 cases are Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) cases while five were found in Environmental Sites (ES).

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He said, “This shows that there is still active transmission of the virus in the country which we need to stop.”

He also said NPHCDA has therefore embarked on strategic shift in critical components of the polio campaign, including vaccination team selection, demand generation, supervision and accountability.

Dr Aina highlighted that there is an increased utilisation of primary health care centres in the country with over 20 million patient encounters across the Primary Health Care (PHC) centres per quarter.

He said, “This is an increase from what it was even a year ago.”

The NPHCDA boss said the agency commenced the training of frontline health workers in June 2024, and in less than a year, has retrained 60,470 frontline health workers across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) out of the 120,000 targeted for training by the current administration.

He added that a total of N22 billion of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) was disbursed to states in 2024 through NPHCDA gateway, while N51 billion was disbursed across all four BHCPF gateways.

He said, “This year, we are substantially increasing the amount of money going to the facilities. Based on this, we are increasing the number of BHCPF-supported PHC facilities from 8,406 to 17,600 over 4 years.”