As Nigerians joined millions of people around the world to celebrate this year’s World Polio Day on Monday, 24 October, 2016, hope is renewed that despite the setbacks suffered in the North East, Nigeria will again get a clean bill of health.
The World Health Organisation in 2015 announced that polio was no longer endemic in Nigeria. It was reported as the first time that Nigeria had interrupted transmission of wild poliovirus, bringing the country and the African region closer than ever to being certified polio-free.
It was described in 2015 by the public-private partnership leading the effort to eradicate polio, Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), as a ‘historic achievement’ in global health.
According to records, since 24 July 2014, Nigeria did not report a case of wild poliovirus and all laboratory data confirmed that 12 months passed in Nigeria without any new cases.
But before then, just in 2012, Nigeria accounted for more than half of all polio cases worldwide. In 2014, the disease was only spreading between people in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. Thus, making Nigeria the only country yet to eradicate the polio virus.
Sadly however, after getting so close to being certified polio-free, the Federal Government confirmed two new cases of polio in Borno State, a development that dealt a massive blow on Nigeria’s hope of being certified polio-free by July 2017.
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