Resurgence of polio case in Nigeria

Nigeria’s polio-free certification suffered a setback last week as new cases of wild-polio were confirmed in the north-eastern state of Borno. Before then, Nigeria had the last confirmed case of polio in July 2014 and was a year away from being certified polio-free because of massive mobilisation by government, international partners and local health providers. […]

Nigeria’s polio-free certification suffered a setback last week as new cases of wild-polio were confirmed in the north-eastern state of Borno. Before then, Nigeria had the last confirmed case of polio in July 2014 and was a year away from being certified polio-free because of massive mobilisation by government, international partners and local health providers.
The development means that Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only three countries in the world currently with outbreaks of wild polio virus. With the setback, Nigeria must now wait until mid-2019 without new outbreaks to receive polio-free certification.
Being a highly infectious disease caused by a virus, polio invades the nervous system, and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. The virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle – for example, contaminated water or food – and multiplies in the intestine. One in 200 infections, experts say, leads to irreversible paralysis – usually in the legs.
Reacting to the recent outbreak, the Health Minister, Professor Isaac Adewole, said the government would immediately immunise up to five million children in four states in an emergency response. About one million children are to be immunised in four local government areas in Borno State. Children in adjoining states of Yobe, Adamawa and Gombe will also be immunised bringing the number to about five million in the four states. The campaign will be carried out in 16 states in the North.
It is vital that health ministry exercises oversight functions on the relevant agencies that should carry out the project to ensure that the immunization is conducted on schedule. For instance, it is not clear if the Presidential Task Force on Polio Immunization, the statutory body which should ensure the scheme is carried out, did much to avert the risk since 2014 after the country recorded zero-polio outbreak, until the recent outbreak.
We urge the Federal Government to do whatever is necessary to improve on the security situation in the North East in order to create an environment in which the immunization of the targeted children could be conducted. Also, we would encourage the military to cooperate with health workers by providing them with security cover to be able to carry out the immunization without being exposed to the risk of attacks by insurgents.
We further call on government and aid organizations to embark on emergency measures to reduce the level of malnutrition among children under the age of 5 in the Internally Displaced Camps (IDPs) and other liberated villages. This is because experts have said polio vaccines cannot be converted into such form that can provide defense for the body against polio virus in a child who is not healthy. Unless the malnourished children are quickly provided with food and nutrition to build their body systems, any immunization that is done may be a waste of resources.
We also ask government to come to the aid of health workers in the affected states and many parts of the country by ensuring that their salaries and allowances are paid. Many of them are being owed their emoluments for several months. They are on the frontline in the immunization process, and if they are not paid, their morale would be too low for this all-important assignment.
We applaud President Muhammadu Buhari for promptly authorizing the release of N9.8billion for polio vaccines and further commend the Federal Ministry of Health, supported by WHO, UNICEF and partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, for hurriedly responding to the problem by commencing an emergency Polio immunization campaign in the affected areas and across the country.
We urge that the federal government to spread the campaign and synchronize with neighbouring regions and provinces in Chad, Niger and Cameroon, which are affected by conflict and large population movements. All the countries of the Lake Chad Basin must work together toward kicking polio out of the region.