Nigeria's Exit
from the List of Polio-Endemic Countries is a Big Achievement
By Abubakar
Mohammed
Nigeria exit from the list of Polio-endemic
countries is a big achievement for which Government, Health Workers, and Partners
all over the world deserve commendation. The delisting of Nigeria by World
Health Organization (WHO) is a reward for all efforts put by all stakeholders
in to the battle against polio in the country. In Adamawa state, we must
congratulate the State Government, Ministry of Health and State Primary Health
Care Development Agency and PHC Authorities on this welcome development.
Until recently, Nigeria is one of the three
countries formally identified as polio-endemic country in the world. The
country share this inglorious status with Pakistan and Afghanistan which are
now the only two countries still battling with the diseases.
All records from World Health Organization (WHO)
dashboard shows that as at 2012, Nigeria accounted for more than half of all
cases in the world. But, the country has not experienced any incidence of the
infection for over one year which resulted in the delisting; with the
interruption of the transmission of the virus in the country, WHO has said that
“Nigeria is closer to being certified as polio-free nation” though we will
still wait for another two years before the country can be fully certified
polio-free by the Global Health Agency. All the same we wish and hope that
certification can be achieved by sustaining the earlier initiatives that made
this delisting possible.
For reaching this developmental milestone, we must
recognized and praise the efforts of Federal Ministry Of Health, National
Primary Health Care Development Agency at national level and State levels of Health,
Primary Health Care Development Agencies and all our partners for contributing
positively toward this worthy cause.
We also applaud the painstaking efforts of our Traditional
and Religious Leaders, Civil Society Organization, and Thousands of dedicated Health
Workers across the country who repeatedly immunized over 45 million children
under the age of five to ensure that no child in the Nigeria will suffer from
the disease again.
While it is good to celebrate this important
historic achievement, it should not lead to complacency on the part of our
health authorities because the battle against the virus is not yet over; rather
than resting on our oars, we should re-double our efforts to ensure that wild
polio virus does not resurface in this Country again. The situation we found ourselves
today calls for more intensified mop up and timely routine immunization of all
eligible children in the state and country at large.
The goal now is to certified Nigeria as polio-free
Country comes 2017; therefore no stone should be left unturned until this
objective is fully achieved.
0 comments Blogger 0 Disqus
Post a Comment