WHO to Present Certificate Delisting Nigeria from Polio Endemic Countries

All is now set for Nigeria to be officially certified as a nonendemic polio country. This will place Nigeria at the verge of eradicating polio as the World Health Organisation (WHO) is set to formally pronounce the delisting of Nigeria as a Polio endemic country before President Muhammadu Buhari.

The announcement a couple of weeks at the 70th United Nations in New York, United States, heralded the official move to delist Nigeria from polio endemic countries alongside Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The event, which is scheduled for the State House on October 26, 2015, will see the country hosting the Director-General of WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, who will be represented by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso R. Moeti.

According to the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Linus Awute, “The Regional Director will meet with the president to formally announce to the Government of Nigeria the WHO’s decision to remove Nigeria from the list of Polio endemic countries, as a recognition of the immediate achievement of Nigeria in stopping the transmission of the Wild Polio Virus for a period of 14 months, which has exceeded WHO’s target for interruption.”

The Regional Director, Dr. Moeti, is also expected to emphasise to policy makers and major stakeholders that despite tremendous progress in Nigeria, complacency is not a luxury at the disposal of the government and partners until the gains of the great feat is sustained for two years to be able to achieve the certification of Nigeria as a polio-free nation by 2017.

In order to boost population immunity of children between the ages of zero to five years as well as achieve eradication status in 2017, Nigeria will continue to vaccinate children, irrespective of their previous immunisation status.

President Buhari, during his interface with the High Level Advocacy Team on Poliomyelitis, headed by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, emphasised that his administration “Would provide the necessary oversight over the programme to ensure no child ever gets paralysed again by Wild Polio Virus.”

He therefore directed the Federal Ministry of Health and its agency to come up with programme elements that would sustain the gains and maintain the momentum towards achieving a final certification.

Thus, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency ( NPHCDA), under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Health, has developed a robust Polio Emergency Plan with corresponding roadmap detailing strategies to sustain the achievement.