Nigeria has intensified its efforts to achieve its prestige of qualified polio-free certification through the African Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) for polio eradication, according to WHO.
According to a WHO Regional Office website, gaining the prestige of being polio-free has not prevented Nigeria from intensifying its polio immunization efforts.
“Nigeria, in collaboration with other partners, is making every effort to ensure that all poliovirus bureaucracy is no longer circulating in the country. “
According to the press release, the last case of wild poliovirus (WPV) in the country reported in Borno state in August 2016.
On 25 August 2020, Nigeria, thanks to the sustained and concerted efforts of the government, WHO and other partners, joined the leagues of polio-free qualified countries, resulting in a polio-free desert.
However, the UN fitness firm said the war against the entire poliovirus bureaucracy in the country is not yet over.
“This is not over because Nigeria continues to suffer from the polio virus derived from a type 2 vaccine (cVDPV2) and it is mandatory to maintain the country’s immunization policy to prevent transmission.
“To advance polio eradication in the country, WHO is working with the borno state government to implement immunization and surveillance activities in safe and hard-to-reach areas of the state.
“The effort is based on the momentum gained through the polio eradication program.
“Also to the availability of vaccines for young people in the region, as access to vaccination and surveillance was the biggest challenge in 2016 when cases of wild polio were detected in the state. “
In Borno state, namely COVID-19 lockdown, groups – adding WHO staff as well as state and network informants in inaccessible spaces – continued vaccination and surveillance activities in hard-to-reach settlements.
Through those efforts, the groups have ensured that AFP instances are known and youth are vaccinated against polio and other diseases to prevent vaccination.
Although cases of PFA have been reported in state insecurity spaces, they have been classified as negative for wild polio and cVDPV2 following research and treatment of stool samples through WHO-accredited national laboratories.
The epidemiological report showed that at the end of week 42 of 2020, a total of 117 cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) were reported and investigated in 64 committed security neighborhoods in 20 government areas (LGA).
According to WHO, the inability to secure settlements in Borno state due to confrontation has been a challenge to the vaccination programme.
However, he said that, on the new reasons discussed in recent months, vaccine surveillance and scope had increased in areas of insecurity.
“The State Monitoring Report that Community Informants in Inaccessible Areas (CIIA) reached 6,123 geographic locations committed to security with valid geographic evidence.
“In the past, 1,212 of these geolocations were not available for follow-up and any other intervention.
In addition, 1,009 of the 1,212 sites not affected in the past with polio vaccines have been reached, in addition to polio surveillance through IARC immunization activities.
Of the new spaces affected in the last 3 months (July-September 2020), 72 are in Bama LGA.
Commenting on progressive surveillance and the scope of immunization in the state, WHO’s borno state coordinator, Dr Musa Audu, said: “Considering Borno is the last sanctuary of wild polio transmission in Africa.
“They make every effort to ensure that the state and Nigeria as a whole remain polio-free.
“This is achieved by consolidating all the implemented inventions that have led to the eventual eradication of polio. “
According to Audu, they were going to access new land thanks to the efforts of the network of informants in spaces of insecurity.
“We have made progress in sustained surveillance in areas of insecurity.
“As of October 16, 387 (36%) colonies of the 1083 colonies in the past not reached at the time of the ARCC scale in the state in March 2020 have been viewed through the program with valid geographical evidence.
“This is evidence that we are not abandoning our efforts despite our polio-free certification,” he said.
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