Kano State Government has again discovered new polio virus in Sumaila Local Government Area of the state. The new case has put the number of Wide Polio Virus (WPB) discovered this year in the state at three as the state government had in its first quarter review announced the discovery of two cases of polio disease in Gaya and Tarauni Local Government Areas. Disturbed by the development, the state government tagged some of the troubled local government areas including Sumaila, Tarauni, Gaya, Minjubri, Tudunwada, Faggae, Bichi and Rogo among others, as high risk areas that needed special attention. The state immunisation officer, Dr. Sherrif Yahaya Musa, while speaking with a delegation of Journalists Against Polio in Kano, itemised the presence of WPB, hard to reach area, higher number of non-compliance and border settlement as part of the conditions. He attributed the new case discovered in Sumaila local Government Area to the resistance of parents who according to the record, denied their wards access to both house to house polio immunisation campaign and routine immunisation exercise since January this year. According to him, the situation made the child vulnerable to polio virus before the incident occurred and also pose serious risks to others within the environment. When asked whether there was sanctions for the technical personnel who failed in their responsibilities to report or act on the persistent rejection of polio vaccine by the affected parents in Sumaila Local Government Area, Musa, who is also a member of the fact-finding committee set up by the state government to investigate the matter, said the investigation was still ongoing and the recommendations of the committee would determine the next line of action. He added that relevant stakeholders had engaged the traditional rulers in some areas where the problem of border settlement is still affecting the routine immunisation exercise. “There are some settlements especially Rogo and Ikara between Kano and Kaduna States where they are having boundary issues, this does not enable us to know who is responsible to cover those areas,” he said. We also considered this as parts of the major challenges but now we use to do pre-immunisation campaign to cover those areas.”
Posted on: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 10:36:25 +0000