From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Federal Government agency, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), has raised alarm of full return of polio in Nigeria few months after it was certified polio free by the African Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) for the eradication of poliomyelitis.
NPHCDA confirmed, on Monday, that there are cases of Circulating Vaccine-Derived Polio Virus type 2 (CVDPV2) in some states, hence, the need for Nigeria as a country to jealously guard the Wild Poliovirus-free status and stop the CVDPV2 transmission in communities.
CVDPV2 can occur if the weakened strain of the virus originally contained in Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) is allowed to circulate among an under-immunized population for a long time, allowing the virus to regain strength and genetically revert into a form that can cause paralysis. But If a population is fully immunized, they will be protected against both CVDPV2 and Wild Polio Viruses.
It spreads more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an infected person, and the virus causes illness, including paralysis.
NPHCDA Executive Director, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, who spoke at the second quarterly meeting of the of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on primary health care delivery (NTLC), in Abuja, on Monday, disclosed that 14 states in Nigeria have been affected by CVDPV2 so far.
He said: “Nigeria as we are all aware has been certified WPV free by the ARCC. However, there are cases of CVDPV2 in some states, hence the need for us as a country to jealously guard our WPV-Free status and stop the cVDPV2 transmission in our communities.
“As at today (Monday), we have CVDPV2 outbreaks in Abia, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, FCT, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Lagos, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara States, and we have conducted four OBRs using the Novelle Oral Polio Vaccine which is a preferred choice as it doesn’t seed the virus.
“However, sub-optimal performance was recorded in all the States due to high number of missed children during the OBR. This poor quality result will affect how we are able to bring this outbreak under control.”
Dr. Faisal told the traditional rulers that donor funding for Polio has reduced drastically, hence the country will be relying on the influence of the Royal Fathers in advocating to political leaders on the need to continue to fund polio outbreak response campaigns.
Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Samaila Muhammad Mera, who is Chairman of NTLC, in his remarks, said the reality is that Nigeria is not out of the woods yet as regards polio. This, he said, was because cases of CVDPV2 continue to spread even in states that have been polio free for nearly seven years.
He, however, confirmed that the scourge of COVID-19 and the challenges of educating the people enough to create demand and acceptance for the vaccine added to the scourge. “Less we forget, routine immunization coverage is very poor and cases of maternal mortality are still unacceptably high in our communities,” he said.
Nevertheless, the Emir thanked some members of the traditional institution who presented themselves publicly for COVID-19 vaccination.
He suggested that NPHCDA and Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 should take advantage of the availability of such images of community influencers across the board to motivate the population to accept the vaccine.
He further suggested that using bill boards and recorded messages and testimonies of experiences from these important individuals will go along way to address and counter negative messages on the disease and safety of the vaccine.
“Also, we are aware of funding challenges for the effective engagement of traditional and religious leaders on these issues, but as leaders deeply concerned with welfare of our people, I assure the NPHCDA and its partners that we would continue to do our utmost best to support all health and related programmes of the Federal Government,” he said.