The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has warned that the Wild Polio Virus (WPV)
may resurface if adequate measures are not taken.
Elizabeth Onitolo, the UNIEF Communication for Development Specialist, stated this at the opening of a three-day media di alogue in Yola, Adamawa State, on Tuesday.
Nigeria and the rest of Africa were formally certified free of the Wild Polio Virus on August 25, 2020, by the World Health Organisation (WHO) after no case of the virus was detected on the continent for three years.
The dialogue tagged “Routine immunisation; Post-polio certification and COVID-19 vaccination” is organised by UNICEF in conjunction with the Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.
Nigeria is the last African country to eliminate the virus which can be prevented with adequate vaccination. Eight years ago, Nigeria accounted for half of the world’s polio cases.
Onitolo, noted that the recorded success is still fragile due to low immunisation coverage which has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world.
“Many parents are not compliant, children are not vaccinated and environmental sanitation and personal hygiene in communities are still low providing a possible ground for polio outbreak,” she said.
“It is over two years without polio in Nigeria and we want to ensure good surveillance,” she said.
Leave a Reply