Nigeria has been delisted from polio
endemic countries, leaving the devastating disease in only two countries and
bringing the world one major step closer to achieving the goal of ending polio,
ITRealms reports.
According
to UN NEWS Centre, the
Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO), Dr.
Margaret Chan said, “The outstanding commitment and efforts that got Nigeria
off the endemic list must continue, to keep Africa polio-free. We must now
support the efforts in Pakistan and Afghanistan so they soon join the
polio-free world.”
Since 1988, the incidence of polio
has been reduced by more than 99 per cent, according to WHO. At the time, more
than 350,000 children were paralysed every year, in more than 125 endemic
countries. Today, two countries remain which have never stopped endemic
transmission of polio: Pakistan and Afghanistan, where there have been in 2015,
41 cases reported (32 in Pakistan, 9 in Afghanistan).
In
its announcement, September26, WHO said that Nigeria has made remarkable
progress against polio, but continued vigilance is needed to protect these
gains and ensure that polio does not return. Nigeria has not reported a case of
wild poliovirus since 24 July 2014, and all laboratory data has confirmed that
a full 12 months have passed without any new cases.
Immunization and surveillance
activities must continue to rapidly detect a potential re-introduction or
re-emergence of the virus, the agency said, explaining that only after three
years have passed without a case of wild poliovirus on the African continent
will an official 'certification' of polio eradication be conducted at the
regional level in Africa.
ITRealms gathered that
the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), the public-private partnership
leading the effort to eradicate polio on the planet, called the development a
'historic achievement' in global health. “More than 200,000 volunteers across
the country repeatedly immunized more than 45 million children under the age of
5, to ensure that no child would suffer from this paralysing disease,” the
agency said.
Cyriavus Nnaji/GEE
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