As Nigeria commemorates three years of wild poliovirus free status, the minister of health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has identified the impact of COVID -19 and insecurity in some parts of the country as fuelling the re-emerging variants of the polio viruses (cVPV2).
The minister, who stated this yesterday at the third-year anniversary of Wild Poliovirus Eradication in Nigeria, held in Abuja, said the variants are remnants in the environment as a result of suboptimal environmental sanitation.
He, however, said that the ministry has directed and guided the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) to mount the needed response to deal with these viruses within an integrated framework in order to address other public health challenges including the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination in the country.
In his remarks, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)’s chief of health, Eduardo Celades, cautioned against complacency, saying polio could come back.
He also warned that the war against all types of polio was not yet over as a circulating variant of poliovirus is still affecting too many children in Nigeria.
Celades said even though the number of zero dose children have been reduced, there is still a lot of work ahead, adding that the routine immunisation rate is still low in the country.
He said, “Complacency is not an option, as polio could come back if we let our guards down, looking at what happened in Malawi and Mozambique, even in the UK and USA. Polio anywhere is polio everywhere.
“We might have won the battle against wild polio, but the war against all types of polio is not yet over. A circulating variant of poliovirus is still affecting too many children in Nigeria.
“It is time for Nigeria to further strengthen immunisation.”
He, however, stated that with everyone’s support in vaccinating all eligible children, Nigeria can ensure that child survival improves.”