Onwuka Nzeshi
2 September 2008
Yaounde — World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday said that the continued presence of polio in parts of Northern Nigeria was dragging backwards the total eradication of polio in the world.
The global health body said African countries and indeed the entire world were currently at risk of polio following the new outbreak of polio type-one in Nigeria.
Director General, WHO, Dr. Magaret Chan , made this known at the opening of the 58th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Yaounde, Cameroun. Chan who said the eradication of a disease is the ultimate form of a sustainable campaign against any disease lamented that the new outbreak of the most dangerous strain of polio had already begun to spread to neighbouring countries.
According to her, emergency immunisation campaigns conducted against polio in Nigeria have not been good enough.
According to a report presented at the conference, Nigeria is the only country in Africa battling with the polio epidemic.
The report presented by the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Lius Sambo, called for an urgent action to stop the wild polio virus currently ravaging some northern states in Nigeria.
"We need to sustain optimum involvement of communities in high risk areas and conduct independent monitoring and evaluation of immunization activities at all levels.
"Although the number of wild polio virus cases in Nigeria declined by 75 percent from 1,125 cases in 2006 to 279 in 2007, and in the African region from 1,192 to 367 during the same period, endemic transmission continues to be restricted to northern Nigeria," Sambo said.
He added that though some level of success has been achieved, only five states in Nigeria has achieved at least 80 percent oral polio vaccine coverage compared to the figures they had in 2006.
On Nigeria's effort in introducing the immunization-plus days, Sambo said it has resulted in better community acceptability and a 25 percent increase in the number of children vaccinated in the northern parts of the country.
Meanwhile, Sambo has also called for improved health facilities for women as a link to development in all states.
The action plan, Sambo said, should include the integration of women's issues into national policies and programmes on women's profile, the development and implementation of adolescent-friendly programmes on information and education, improved clinical services for women.
According to him, there is an urgent need to strengthen the capacity of women, families and communities with a view to empower women and setting up a national multi-disciplinary team of experts in health, gender and human rights to conduct research on issues specific to women health .
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