WHO, others blame Nigeria, Pakistan for continued polio transmission

Fresh immunisation begins nationwide

UNICEF commends Ebonyi

THE Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) set up by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has raised fresh concerns over “increase in polioWHO-DG-Chan transmission in Nigeria and Pakistan”, stating that the two countries now constitute a serious threat to the possibility of global eradication of the disease.

GPEI is a public-private partnership led by national governments and spearheaded by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Rotary International, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Its goal is to eradicate polio worldwide. The IMB comprises global experts from a variety of fields relevant to the work of the GPEI, and was established at the request of the Executive Board (EB) and the World Health Assembly (WHA).

The report of the January 30 to February 1 meeting of the IMB published yesterday by GPEI congratulated the Indian government for not recording any polio case since January 2011, and was close to being declared polio free.

“In particular, the IMB is extremely concerned at the increase in polio transmission in Nigeria and Pakistan. Together, these two countries now constitute the most potent threat to the possibility of global eradication. With the experience in India clearly demonstrating the feasibility of success, the IMB underscores that the opportunity to finish this disease once and for all must not be lost. Failure, it warns, would ‘unleash the virus, paralysing hundreds of thousands of children,” the report read.

On Nigeria, the GPEI reported that two new cases were reported in the past week. “These were Wild Polio Virus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Sokoto and Zamfara states. Both cases had onset of paralysis in 2011, bringing the total number of cases in 2011 to 60. One case has been reported in 2012, a WPV3 case from Borno State with onset of paralysis on January 14.”

The report entitled “From top leadership to the humble vaccinator” was published as the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at the weekend started a four-day Supplementary Immunisation Activities (SIAs) using bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV).