On Friday, military helicopters rushed polio vaccines to dangerous parts of northeastern Nigeria, where Boko Haram operates and two paralyzed toddlers were recently discovered, according to a health official.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the new cases indicate the wild polio virus has circulated undetected for five years in Borno state, thereby a major setback after Nigeria was declared polio-free in October.
SEE: Polio: Nigeria Suffers Setback As Two Fresh Infections Reported In Borno
According to Borno state health commissioner Ibrahim Miringa, the recent attacks by Boko Haram prevented the emergency operation from getting health workers to two parts of Borno state where the children were found.
Massive challenges face the Nigerian health workers supported by the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to urgently vaccinate millions of endangered children in an area where the U.N. suspended aid after a military-escorted humanitarian convoy was attacked last month.
SEE ALSO: UNICEF Suspends Aid To Northern Nigeria After Convoy Attack
“Not all the areas that have been liberated by the military could be accessed by our health officials because of recent attacks in Jere and Gwoza local government areas carried out by Boko Haram,” Miringa said.
Jere and Gwoza are the areas where the first two cases of polio were found in Nigeria in more than two years, the WHO announced Thursday night.
Nigeria’s removal from WHO’s list of polio-endemic countries had meant all of Africa was free from the crippling disease. Only two other countries remain on the list — Afghanistan and Pakistan.
SEE ALSO: WHO Formally Removes Nigeria From List Of Polio Endemic Countries
Miringa said the two children, aged under 2, were among refugees arrived from areas newly freed from Boko Haram.
He said health workers have been vaccinating refugees as they arrive in major camps. “But recent liberation of internally displaced persons from the hinterlands and their being camped in satellite camps have made the immunization exercise difficult.”
International organizations plan to support Nigerian health workers in using “a hit-and-run kind of strategy,” the WHO director for polio eradication, Dr. Michel Zaffran, told reporters in a conference call.
