Victory on war against polio
Nigeria, for the first time last month, marked a full one year without recording a single fresh case of the crippling polio infection. The achievement, coming exactly a year after the last case of polio in the country was reported on July 24, 2014, in Sumaila Local Government of Kano, raised high hopes for early eradication of the scourge in the country.
Announcing the heartwarming breakthrough on July 24, 2015, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Ado Mohammed, revealed that if the country could maintain the no-polio status for two more years, it would be officially certified as a polio-free country by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Polio is an infection caused by the highly contagious poliovirus and can be contracted through contact with the feaces of an infected person.
Polio affects mostly children under the age of five, with one in 200 infections resulting in irreversible paralysis. The virus has no cure, but it can be prevented through vaccination.
Until lately, Nigeria had prominently featured in the negative narratives of the polio war, at many times representing the worst case scenario, even among the group of the infamous polioendemic countries (Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan), a league of nations that are regarded as reservoirs for harbouring and transmitting the dreaded virus around the world. Pakistan and Afghanistan, have as at August 5 this year, reported 34 cases (Pakistan 28, Afghanistan 6), which puts them behind in the race.
In his statement, Dr Mohammed said Nigeria would be officially removed from the list if “all pending laboratory investigations return in the next few weeks.”
“However,” he added, “Nigeria will only be certified polio free by WHO in 2017, provided it maintains its zero case status, further strengthens its surveillance system, improves routine immunization and maintains high quality campaigns.”
Nigeria cannot afford to toy with this call to arms and all out final battle with polio. That the country is exiting the league of polio-endemic countries behind all countries in Africa has already hurt Nigeria’s national pride, especially given its leadership role in the continent.
Another sad commentary is the well known rejection of polio vaccines by the authorities in Kano in 2003 over safety concerns, which spiked infections at home and across the world, with the Nigerian strain of the virus causing new infections in 16 countries.
Nigeria can, however, put all the drawbacks behind it if the country eventually gets certified polio free in 2017, a good one year before the official date for eradicating polio globally in 2018.
Figures from around the world have proved that the virus is receding, thus reinforcing the long-established fact that polio can be eradicated. From a virus recording an estimated 350,000 hits in 1998, polio had been cut down by over 99%, to 416 cases in 2013, according to WHO. Here at home, the result is even more instructive, given that in as closely as 2012, Nigeria had reported 122 cases of polio, as Dr Mohammed noted, and arrived at 100% decrease after just three years.
While we commend all the stakeholders for giving Nigerians a reason to cheer up, we equally call on them all, governments, religious and community leaders, health workers and partners to redouble the commitment until Nigeria attains the status of a polio-free country in 2017. Parents must give their maximum cooperation to the overall success of the exercise.
Government should also pay attention to other health concerns of communities, as focusing on fighting polio alone in the midst of other existing common health challenges, can be counterproductive.
For coming through one full year without a single case of polio, Nigeria won a momentous battle. There should be no complacency. It is the time to give polio the final push, to win the war.