Chioma Obinna & Beatrice Samuel
9 March 2004
AS the Nigeria Government stepped up efforts to convince Nigerians on the Polio Vaccine Safety, Laboratory tests carried out on a case of polio discovered in Ivory Coast have confirmed that the source of the virus emanated from Nigeria
The Director of the Global Polio eradication progamme, Dr. David Heymann who disclosed this at the opening of the Fourth International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Geneva expressed optimism that the virus would be eradicated by early next year.
Heymann who apparently wondered why the vaccine was being rejected by the Northern part of Nigeria explained that the vaccine being used in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa was the same one that reduced the incidence of paralytic polio to less than 758 cases in 2003.
He noted that "Nigeria accounted for 347 of those cases. When the WHO began the program in 1988, there were 1,000 cases a day. Polio can spread readily as long as there is a single case anywhere."
He further dismissed as nonspecific the results from one test he said that some Muslim officials have interpreted as showing female hormones in the vaccine. He said the findings were nonspecific and not a true indication of the presence of hormones.
Heymann said Success of the immunization programme in Nigeria and other countries depends largely on how northern Nigerian officials interpret the findings of laboratory tests of the polio vaccine being completed in India.
Dr. Heymann said, there are more countries where polio has reappeared after it was eliminated than countries where it remains endemic. The countries with endemic polio are Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Niger, Nigeria and Pakistan.
Nigeria is believed to have also exported the infections to the seven other previously polio-free African countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Ghana, Togo and Chad.
Ivory Coast is now the eighth previously polio-free country in Africa where the crippling disease has reappeared in recent months. Its last polio case was reported in July 2000. WHO said that the exported cases and continued opposition to polio vaccination by religious and political leaders in the northern states of Nigeria are jeopardizing its efforts to eradicate polio by the end of this year.
Opposition from religious and political leaders in the north of Nigeria has forced the suspension of an immunization program being conducted in Nigeria and other countries in Africa where polio is endemic or has been spread in recent months.
Volunteers bearing droppers of vaccine fanned out across those countries in an emergency program synchronized by the World Health Organization. The program aims to vaccinate 63 million children under the age of 5.
It could be recalled that in January this year, health ministers from six countries where polio is now spreading said they would intensify efforts to immunize 250 million children against the disease by the end of this year. To meet the goal, it's clear the solutions have to come from Nigeria.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2004 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
