Committe Worried 2015 Elections May Hamper Polio Campaign: The Expert Review Committee on Polio and Routine Immunisation on Wednesday expressed fear that the 2015 general elections might hamper the efforts to eradicate polio virus in Nigeria. Dr Ado Muhammad, Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, expressed the fear at the committees 27th meeting to assess the progress made in polio eradication in Abuja. He said that the 2015 elections would be a distraction for polio activities in the country, adding: “Election is a risk because we knew what happened in the past. “So, learning from the past experiences, we are being proactive in such a way that at the sub-national level we will continue to ensure that the commitment at the state, local and community levels are in tune with the Federal Government’s. “This is because the major risk is that if the politicians get distracted at the sub-national level, then, the programme suffers.’’ He said that in every six months, the committee usually met to review the progress, assess the challenges and the risk recorded in polio eradication. “Today, what became very clear is that Nigeria has made unprecedented progress that has never been seen in the history of public health in Nigeria. “We have been able to reduce polio cases in Nigeria by 60 per cent, confine the genetic cluster by almost 96 per cent, then confine and restrict the virus. “This year, only one case has been seen. It is in Dala Local Government of Kano State, ’’ he said. Muhammad said the country had recorded 84 per cent in routine immunisation, noting that “Nigeria is not only making progress with polio eradication, but also with routine immunisation.” He said the major challenge was accessing children in security-prone areas, comprising mainly the three states affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. Muhammad, however, said the committee had developed some innovative strategies in terms of reaching out to children in those locations. “We have been able to categorise the risk status into very high, medium and low risk; depending on what category it falls into. “We are, however, working out innovative strategies to ensure that those children are reached, ’’ he said. The Chairman of the committee, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, said the single case of polio recorded in the last six months was “very important and crucial’’. Tomori said the national elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011 caused distractions in anti-polio activities in terms of commitment and advocacy. He said that funds for the campaign were diverted to other uses. “It is not that we have not been this close before, we have been very close but we missed the opportunity, if we are not careful, we will miss the opportunity again. “Like everybody has been saying, the election that is coming up may derail us as we experienced in the past. “Our desire is that this time around, it does not derail us anymore so that Nigeria can get rid of polio and forget all these problems once and for all, ’’ he said. In his speech, Dr Rui Vaz, WHO Representative in Nigeria, said the country had made tremendous improvement since 2013. “By the 57 per cent reduction in 2013 compared to 2012 and for the first three months this year, it has been possible to reduce by 89 per cent olio cases. “We have only one case at the moment but we believe that there is still a lot of work to be done. “It is not because of one case, one case represents a lot in terms of the polio epidemic, ’’ he said. Vaz called for improvement in the quality of campaign and also to create demand for the community to participate and understand the importance of the vaccine. He advised that Nigeria should be cautious about cross-border infections, considering neighbouring countries at risk, including Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. “In this meeting, we are going to discuss cross-border activities. Cameroun is one of the countries currently infected and Equatorial Guinea. “As you know, there is lot of population movement, so, we are working on cross-border activities with ministers of Health of those countries. “This is to ensure that when there is movement from one place to another, they are vaccinated, “he said. (NAN) Original link Read More elotitv/easyblog/entry/committe-worried-2015-elections-may-hamper-polio-campaign (y) ✍comment ☏share
Posted on: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 10:21:06 +0000
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