100,000 Children not Immunised against Polio in North-east, Says Adewole

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole has stated that over 100,000 children in the Northeast are yet to be immunised against polio despite considerable progress made by the federal government in addressing the issue in the region.

Stating this during the annual meeting of African Regional Certification Commission for Poliomyelitis Eradication (ARCC), in Abuja yesterday, he said even though there have been immunisation setbacks in the region due to Boko Haram insurgency, Africa has made considerable progress in eradicating polio.

He said in 2012, African region reported 128 wild poliovirus (WPV) cases, which accounted for more than half of the global burden, but that by 2013, only about 76 cases were reported. “In 2014, only about 17 cases where recorded. 2015 recorded zero case.

“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.

“Nigeria remains on the list of polio endemic countries because some areas in the Northeast remain inaccessible to the polio programme.”

In 2016, Nigeria was on the verge of being certified polio-free by the World Health Organisation (WHO) before new cases were reported in areas prone to Boko Haram activities.

The last case of polio was reported in Monguno Local Government Area of Borno State, thereby hampering WHO from declaring the country polio-free.

Adewole noted that the federal government, following the discovery of new cases two years ago, 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 per cent of settlements in Borno have been accessed for vaccination at least once,” he added.

On his part, a virologist, Oyewale Tomori, said Nigeria cannot boast of eradicating polio until the high risk region in the Northeast and borders were effectively covered with polio immunisation, adding that government need to do more.

“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.

The Chairperson, ARCC, Rose Leke, said to successfully eradicate polio from the region, there was need to raise routine polio immunisation across board.