The Nation Newspaper

Tag: polio

  • ‘Why polio is yet to be eradicated’

    ‘Why polio is yet to be eradicated’

    The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, yesterday gave reasons for the upsurge of polio last year.

    Speaking in Abuja at the beginning of the Nigeria-India Rotary Polio Corrective Surgery Project to be carried out in Nigeria by 26 Indian doctors, he said what Nigeria is going through is not really a case of polio eradication reversal, but that it was caused by some communities that have been missed in the programmes for over 10 years.

    While stressing that a new scheme has been developed to ensure no community is henceforth missed during polio immunisation programmes, Prof. Chukwu said the officials involved in the immunisation are now being held accountable for what they collect.

    He said: “Prevention is better than cure. But where we are not able to prevent, we should not abandon. We feel bad that polio is still in Nigeria. What happened in the country is not really reversal of polio eradication.”

     

     

     

     

  • Nigerian children not free from polio

    Nigerian, Pakistani and Afghanistan children are still affected by polio.

    These are the remaining polio-endemic countries, the United Nation’s Children Education Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, Anthony Lake, has said.

    He made this known during the World Polio Day (WPD) in New York.

    According to him, many children are still ravaged by this virus.

    He said: “It is the children in the hardest to reach areas of these and other countries that are most at risk. Others are with disabilities, the impoverished, and those living in conflict zones or remote areas.

    “India’s example shows we can reach them. And we will reach them – by working together.

    “In September at the UN General Assembly, the leaders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, as well as government donors, civil society and the private sector reconfirmed their commitment to rid the world of polio. And out in the field, courageous health workers — the real heroes of this effort — risk their lives  daily to seek out and immunise children, often at great personal risk.

    “We have come so far together in the fight to end polio. We have the means to finish the job. We can make history. Or we can fail to seize the moment. Lest history judge us harshly, let a polio-free world be our legacy to the next generation of children.”

    Lake said the day is a reminder of all that has been achieved together in the fight against polio.

    “There is much to celebrate. Fewer children than ever before suffer the debilitating effects of this cruel disease. For the first time in its history, this year, India was declared polio free. We can see before us the finish line: the eradication of polio,” Lake said.

    He added: “But WPD is also a sobering reminder that, as in many long distance races, the last mile is the hardest one.”

  • An unfinished campaign against Polio

    An unfinished campaign against Polio

    Leaders of the global fight to eradicate polio vowed at the United Nations on Thursday to step up their efforts to eliminate the virus from the three countries where the disease still has a foothold — Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. The challenge is that those countries are troubled by political unrest, violence and social customs that can interfere with the delivery of vaccines to the children and adults who need protection.

    Polio erupted in frightening epidemics around the world during the 20th century and crippled or killed hundreds of thousands of victims a year. There is no cure, but vaccines eliminated the virus from advanced countries and relegated it to poorer regions of the world.

    In 1988, a global campaign was organized by public and private organizations to eradicate the disease. It has been an enormous success. At its start, more than 350,000 children were paralyzed each year in more than 125 countries. This year, only 145 cases have been reported, and the disease remains endemic in only three countries.

    Afghanistan pushed down the number of cases to 17 so far this year from 80 last year. Pakistan drove its polio burden down to 30 cases as of mid-August, but has run into difficulties because of opposition from the Taliban and Muslim religious leaders who depict vaccination campaigns as a cover for espionage. Nigeria experienced a drop in cases in 2010 followed by an upsurge to 84 cases this year, mostly in areas where militant groups are fighting and people distrust Western vaccines.

    Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, said he would enlist agencies of the United Nations to make eradication a top priority this year. Ridding the world of polio should be a crucial part of a broad campaign to immunize all children against infectious diseases.

     

    – New York Times

  • Kano targets 6 million kids for Polio vaccination

    Kano state is targeting 6 million children from ages 1 to 5 in the next vaccination exercise against the dreaded polio disease.

    The Commissioner of Health, Dr Abubakar Yusuf, disclosed this to reporters yesterday in Kano.

    He said: “Based on census figure, we are targeting 6 million for the vaccination and the state government has released all the necessary funds for the immunisation exercise to all the 42 local government areas.”

    He stressed that the government has held series of meetings with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children Educational and Scientific Fund (UNICEF) who are major partners, to ensure the success of the exercise.

    The commissioner assured of 100 percent coverage of under – served areas during the exercise using the newly introduced Geographic Information System (GIS).

    By using the GIS, Yusuf said: “supervisors will easily know what is happening in the under – served areas, which are the main targets for the exercise.”

    He also commended the use of the newly- introduced community- based Tsangaya or Koranic education system aimed towards eradicating polio at the grass root by using Mallams and Imams teaching children within the age bracket.

  • Northern traditional leaders battle polio

    •Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar

    The Federal Government has stepped up its effort to eradicate wild polio virus (WPV) in the country, with focus on endemic states in the North, but it was traditional rulers in the region who drove the campaign.

    The government kicked off the latest activities in Sokoto State through the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) whose personnel were in the state capital to sensitise residents on the need to immunise their children.
    Personnel of development partners such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organisation (WHO), among others, were also at the seat of the caliphate to help halt the spread of the polio virus in the region.

    Traditional leaders, however, played a leading role, with the respected Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III coordinating activities.

    Emirs and chiefs from the region, under the auspices of Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on the Eradication of Polio, were actively involved, with no fewer than 35 of them present at the one-day sensitisation session which held at the Sultan’s palace.

    The committee questioned the exclusion of some children under five years old from polio vaccination and routine immunisation programmes.
    The 10 endemic states under the committee’s focus are Kano, Kaduna, Borno, Yobe, Sokoto, Jigawa, Katsina, Niger and Zamfara.
    Sultan Sa’ad asked: “Are some people hiding under polio eradication to feed fat at the expense of our collective effort to fight it? The welfare and health of our subjects are fundamental to us. We are role models to them.”

    Head of Immunisation and Polio vaccine unit of the NPHCDA, Dr. Zubairu Mahmud, urged concerted efforts to stamp out the scourge.
    Dr. Ado Muhammad, Executive Director of the NPHCDA, said optimistically that Nigeria will halt the spread of the WPV by 2015.
    He noted that the major challenge of the crusade lies with local government areas where prevalence is high.
    “We want to vaccinate those settlements by ensuring maximum coverage,” he said.

    The Sultan told reporters that all necessary mechanisms were being put in place to ensure effective implementation of the crusade, which he said “cuts across 209 ward settlements”.