Last weekend, there were reports that Nigeria’s war against polio has been delivering expected results. This report was authenticated by the United Nations Children Education Fund, UNICEF. According to the country representative, Mrs. Jean Gough, who spoke in Sokoto last Friday, Nigeria is close to being declared polio-free.
In an address to a group of journalists who partner with the anti-polio campaign, Journalists Against Polio, JAP, during a planning meeting for the September 2013 sub-polio immunisation plus days, SIPDs, Gough was quoted as saying, “Nigeria is in the eyes of the world as we are close to the end of the last journey and it is the most difficult. More efforts should be made in this direction to ensure the success of the last campaign. Polio is debilitating and it is a killer,” she said.
She therefore called on the media, government, communities and other stakeholders to contribute to the anticipated success of the campaign in Nigeria.
Similarly, the anti-polio campaign is being boosted by the relentless efforts of the National Orientation Agency, NOA. For example, in Sokoto State, the agency has identified 25 high-risk wards in five local government areas where most children are yet to be immunised against the polio virus. This was revealed by the state NOA director, Alhaji Abubakar Danchadi.
Over 90 per cent of children in these LGAs have not yet been immunised.
Several, if not all the northern states, have cases of polio, which have been responsible for the deaths of many children under the age of five. Initially, there was apathy by parents towards the programme as they doubted the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines on children. This was as a result of a scandal linking death and deformity of several children to a vaccines administered a few years ago in same Northern States, especially Kano.
This necessitated the inclusion of traditional and religious institutions in the renewed campaign to stop the scourge of polio in the country, which brought Mr. Bill Gate, the American billionaire and other philanthropists, into the country.
A research conducted by Polio Global Eradication Initiative had earlier indicated that, “Nigeria is one of the most entrenched reservoirs of wild poliovirus in the world. It is the only country with ongoing transmission of all three serotypes: wild poliovirus type 1, wild poliovirus type 3, and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2.
States in the north of the country are the main source of polio infections, elsewhere in Nigeria and in neighbouring countries. In 2009, operational improvements in these northern states led to a 90 per cent decline in cases of wild poliovirus type 1 and a 50 per cent decline in overall cases compared with 2008,” it stated.
The efforts of international agencies such as UNICEF, local and non-governmental organisations, federal and state governments of northern Nigeria should be commended.
It would be recalled that health the workers who move from one community to other on immunisation programme had faced and still face security risk in the course of their assignments. There have been reports of attacks on health workers by insurgents; however, the relevant bodies have not relented.
Amidst the boiling political conflict that has been tearing through the centre of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, more than a week ago, there are other non-political developments that provide something to cheer after all. On this note, all hands must be on deck to provide full support to the relevant agencies and bodies in their determination to bring this scourge to an end in Nigeria.