FG working to make Nigeria polio free - Minister

The Federal Government is working towards ensuring that the country becomes polio free, Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole has said.

He stated this yesterday during the African Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) meeting in Abuja.

He said the greatest challenge to government’s efforts was accessibility to all eligible children particularly in parts of the northeast, especially Borno State.

“We would not be quick to state that we have successfully truncated transmission until every part of our beloved country is accessible to the vaccination and surveillance teams,” he said.

Prof Adewole said government was confident that this will happen sooner than expected, saying the armed forces was doing extremely well to overwhelm Boko Haram insurgency.

The last Wild Polio Virus (WPV) was reported 21 months ago in Monguno Local Government Area, Borno State, however, Nigeria remains on the list of polio endemic countries as some areas in the northeast remained inaccessible to the polio programme.

Adewole said the meeting was anchored on the resolve to liberate Nigeria and indeed Africa from the scourge of poliomyelitis.

WHO Country Representative to Nigeria, Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu said the ongoing circulating Vaccine derived Poliovirus (cVDPV) in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the horn of Africa underscores the need for comprehensive approach towards eradication.

While saying that the cVDPV2 outbreak in Nigeria was in areas with very low immunization coverage, he commended the federal government’s aggressive emergency efforts towards addressing the outbreaks and ramping up routine immunisation.

Chairman, African Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) Prof Rose Leke said that for certification criteria, the ARCC considers the absence of polio cases at least three consecutive years in the presence of adequate surveillance including, in high risk areas and good performance of routine immunisation.

Prof Leke said in spite of marked progress in the region there was need for countries to remain more vigilant to avoid missing any transmission or importation of polio viruses especially in security compromised areas.