The Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Ado Muhammad and the Chairman of the Expert Review Committee on Polio Eradication, Professor Oyewale Tomori, said the efforts were to ensure that polio was completely eradicated and that Nigeria attained the polio free status from the WHO.
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The global effort to eradicate the debilitating disease started in 1988 when an estimated 350,000 cases of polio were reported in 125 countries.
Reports state that no new polio cases have been marked in Africa since 11 August 2014 in the Hobyo district of Mudug province in Somalia signifying that there are still two years until the continent is declared polio-free entirely, according to the Guardian.
While Somalia has had its hopeful moments over the years, the disease hasn’t yet been completely wiped out.
Although there are high hopes for the continent being polio-free, violent Islamist groups in areas like Somalia and Nigeria are making it very hard for the polio vaccines to reach the children on time or at all.
In a tremendous mark of feet, Africa is now observing one complete year without any new cases of polio for the first time. “However, it must also be taken within context, and with caution”, said Dr. Hamid Jafari, who heads the World Health Organization’s polio eradication initiative.
However, Africa has still been struggling with the disease, along with countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, where 34 cases have been discovered in 2015.
Last month we applauded Nigeria for having achieved a year without detection of the wild poliovirus, despite the enormous challenges posed by insecurity in the Northeast of the country.
But in 2009 traditional leaders across the country agreed to back immunisation campaigns and encourage parents to have their children vaccinated.
Vaccinators were periodically attacked and killed because religious leaders believed their work to be part of a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children.
African officials are celebrating as they announce a huge milestone in their history.
“While today’s milestone is extraordinary, it is not an endpoint”, Crowley said.
Nigeria marked one year since its last recorded case of polio in July.
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Polio has also found its way into the west-African nation of Nigeria, regardless of past attempts to ward it off. But after embracing a new approach recently that included a heavy vaccination and rigorous monitoring of unvaccinated people as well. Afghanistan and Pakistan remain the only two countries in the world that have active cases of the disease.
