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Nigeria: Tackling the polio challenge
Source: http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpage...1-2008-001.htm
Tackling the polio challenge
By Sun News Publishing
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Editorial Index
Recently, Nigeria?s failure to halt the ravaging onslaught of polio on children in the country was again brought to the front burner with a report that 65 children were paralyzed by the Wild Polio Virus in October alone. A publication by the Expert Review Committee (ERC) on Polio entitled ?Countdown to Polio Eradication in Nigeria? said most of the new cases were caused by the more virulent Type 1 Wild Polio Virus (WPV). The 65 new infections brought the number of children paralyzed by polio in Nigeria in 2008 from 675 in September to 740 in October. This is a significant increase from the 207 new cases that were recorded for the same period in 2007.
The figures indicate that Kano State was the worst hit in the country, with 26 new infections in October which brought the state?s total number of children paralyzed this year to 263, up from 237 in September. Zamfara recorded 86 cases (up from 83 in September) and Bauchi, 46, compared with 37 in September.
Adamawa had only one recorded case in the year. Osun, Enugu, and Benue had two cases each while Kogi doubled its figure of two cases for the year, in September, to four by October. Other states with the burden of polio paralysis include Jigawa (39), Yobe (24), Sokoto (23) Plateau (22), Borno (21) Federal Capital Territory (8) and Oyo (18).
The ERC attributed the continuing spread of the polio infection to the consistent failure to reach and immunise children in the endemic states. It harped on the need to engage national, state and community leaders in polio eradication efforts and also called for a significant improvement in the quality of Supplementary Immunisation Activities (SIA) in the high risk states, especially Kano, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, and Bauchi to reduce the number of children who had never received the vaccine to less than 10 per cent by the first quarter of 2004 and ultimately, to eradicate the WPV Type 1 in Nigeria by mid-2009.
The news of the unrelenting onslaught of polio on Nigerian children is distressing. Nigeria, more than one year ago, earned the ignoble distinction of being one of the last bastions of polio in the world. It was a dishonorable title that the nation, at that time, shared with two other countries. The sad situation, instead of improving since that time, has significantly deteriorated to the extent that the Director-General of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, Dr. Margaret Chan, at its recent 58th Session in Yaounde, Cameroon, accused Nigeria of dragging the world back in the battle to eradicate polio.
The international agency has also further confirmed that Nigeria habours 91 per cent of polio cases in Africa and 87 per cent of the virulent Type I WPV in the world. This is a national shame that the nation can ill afford.
As we have had to remonstrate on many occasions, the nation needs all hands to be on deck if we are to join other countries which have eradicated polio on their shores. The nation needs to re-double its efforts in disabusing the minds of the people of the many imagined ills that have been attributed to the polio vaccine, which is responsible for the wilful resistance to immunization in some parts of the country. Governments at all levels, non-governmental organisations, traditional and religious rulers of all faiths should be involved in the effort to make Nigerians in every nook and cranny of the country embrace polio immunisation.
The government should embark on national enlightenment campaigns targeted at removing all cultural and religious inhibitions to child immunisation. Traditional and opinion leaders should be educated to separate cultural supervision from medical needs while the relevant agencies should improve their technical capacity to access children even in the most difficult terrains, including the forest regions and the riverine areas.
Agencies like the United Nations Children?s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) World Health Organisation (WHO); our own National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Press should step up campaigns on the efficacy and safety of polio vaccines. Potable water should be provided in all parts of the country to stop the transmission of the infection through unclean water.
It is reassuring that a meeting of the Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee/Task Force on Polio Eradication and Routine Immunisation held in Abuja between October 20 and 21 to address the polio problem. We suggest that whatever intervention strategies the meeting was able to come up with should be quickly implemented. We also enjoin parents in the endemic states to embrace polio vaccination to give their children a head start in life by ensuring that they are not disfigured by polio infection.
Tackling the polio challenge
By Sun News Publishing
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Editorial Index
Recently, Nigeria?s failure to halt the ravaging onslaught of polio on children in the country was again brought to the front burner with a report that 65 children were paralyzed by the Wild Polio Virus in October alone. A publication by the Expert Review Committee (ERC) on Polio entitled ?Countdown to Polio Eradication in Nigeria? said most of the new cases were caused by the more virulent Type 1 Wild Polio Virus (WPV). The 65 new infections brought the number of children paralyzed by polio in Nigeria in 2008 from 675 in September to 740 in October. This is a significant increase from the 207 new cases that were recorded for the same period in 2007.
The figures indicate that Kano State was the worst hit in the country, with 26 new infections in October which brought the state?s total number of children paralyzed this year to 263, up from 237 in September. Zamfara recorded 86 cases (up from 83 in September) and Bauchi, 46, compared with 37 in September.
Adamawa had only one recorded case in the year. Osun, Enugu, and Benue had two cases each while Kogi doubled its figure of two cases for the year, in September, to four by October. Other states with the burden of polio paralysis include Jigawa (39), Yobe (24), Sokoto (23) Plateau (22), Borno (21) Federal Capital Territory (8) and Oyo (18).
The ERC attributed the continuing spread of the polio infection to the consistent failure to reach and immunise children in the endemic states. It harped on the need to engage national, state and community leaders in polio eradication efforts and also called for a significant improvement in the quality of Supplementary Immunisation Activities (SIA) in the high risk states, especially Kano, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, and Bauchi to reduce the number of children who had never received the vaccine to less than 10 per cent by the first quarter of 2004 and ultimately, to eradicate the WPV Type 1 in Nigeria by mid-2009.
The news of the unrelenting onslaught of polio on Nigerian children is distressing. Nigeria, more than one year ago, earned the ignoble distinction of being one of the last bastions of polio in the world. It was a dishonorable title that the nation, at that time, shared with two other countries. The sad situation, instead of improving since that time, has significantly deteriorated to the extent that the Director-General of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, Dr. Margaret Chan, at its recent 58th Session in Yaounde, Cameroon, accused Nigeria of dragging the world back in the battle to eradicate polio.
The international agency has also further confirmed that Nigeria habours 91 per cent of polio cases in Africa and 87 per cent of the virulent Type I WPV in the world. This is a national shame that the nation can ill afford.
As we have had to remonstrate on many occasions, the nation needs all hands to be on deck if we are to join other countries which have eradicated polio on their shores. The nation needs to re-double its efforts in disabusing the minds of the people of the many imagined ills that have been attributed to the polio vaccine, which is responsible for the wilful resistance to immunization in some parts of the country. Governments at all levels, non-governmental organisations, traditional and religious rulers of all faiths should be involved in the effort to make Nigerians in every nook and cranny of the country embrace polio immunisation.
The government should embark on national enlightenment campaigns targeted at removing all cultural and religious inhibitions to child immunisation. Traditional and opinion leaders should be educated to separate cultural supervision from medical needs while the relevant agencies should improve their technical capacity to access children even in the most difficult terrains, including the forest regions and the riverine areas.
Agencies like the United Nations Children?s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) World Health Organisation (WHO); our own National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Press should step up campaigns on the efficacy and safety of polio vaccines. Potable water should be provided in all parts of the country to stop the transmission of the infection through unclean water.
It is reassuring that a meeting of the Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee/Task Force on Polio Eradication and Routine Immunisation held in Abuja between October 20 and 21 to address the polio problem. We suggest that whatever intervention strategies the meeting was able to come up with should be quickly implemented. We also enjoin parents in the endemic states to embrace polio vaccination to give their children a head start in life by ensuring that they are not disfigured by polio infection.