NIGERIA: POLIO ONE REPORTED IN ABUJA

The Primary Health Care Development Board (PHCDB) of Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja said that a case of type-one wild polio virus had been reported from Jahi One District, Gwarinpa, Abuja Municipal Area Council.

The Executive Secretary of the board, Dr. Rilwanu Mohammed, who visited the Jahi One District in Gwarinpa, Abuja, on Sunday, said that the reported case had been confirmed.

Mohammed said that there was no reported case of polio in the FCT since 2010, but that one child had just been confirmed to have the type one polio virus.

The executive secretary said that the second case had not been confirmed.

He said that the faeces of the second child suspected to be infected had been taken to University College Hospital, Ibadan for proper laboratory check-up to ascertain the disease.

Mohammed said, “We have started media jingles and community dialogue on measures to tackle the situation.

“We want to cordon off the area because we don’t want it to spread to other areas in the FCT.

“The one confirmed case can transmit the disease to 200 children, so we have to cordoned off the area, therefore we are going to carry out a two-day immunisation in that area.’’

Mohammed said the board had received 50,000 doses of polio vaccines from the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency to be given to children in the Jahi community.

He said that youths in the community would be mobilised and trained on how to administer the vaccine, adding that the immunisation would be done from house to house.

The board secretary noted that the type-one- polio was the worst polio virus, stressing that Nigeria had about 94 reported cases of it and 18 cases of the type two polio.

He warned that dirty environment was a key factor to the spread of the disease, adding that a child with the virus could easily spread it to other children who had not been vaccinated.

He advised parents to take their children for routine immunisation, stressing that it was key to disease prevention.

He gave the assurance that the board would intensify its efforts to ensure that all children were immunised.

The board would collaborate with road transport workers to ensure that any child migrating to Abuja would be given compulsory polio immunisation, Mohammed said.

Also speaking, Dr. Idang Ebong, the WHO FCT Coordinator, said that one of the reasons why Nigeria might be having an upsurge of wild polio virus could be poor routine immunisation.

Ebong said care givers were not really utilising health facilities that rendered routine immunisation, while dirty environments add to the spread of the disease.

“If you look around you, you will see stagnant water, filthy environment and children playing around, knowing that polio virus is a psycho-oral infection.

“The children can easily pick up the infection from filthy environment and poor drains,” he said.

He urged parents to ensure that their children were immunised, adding, “it is the bedrock of preventable disease”.

Mr. Haruna Abdullahi, whose child was confirmed to have polio, said his two-year-old child was immunised only twice.

Mrs. Zainab Abdullahi, the mother to the second child whose case was not yet confirmed said her 14 months old child was also immunised twice.

Nigeria is among the three countries in the world, where polio is yet to be eradicated.

The other countries are Pakistan and Afghanistan.