National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) has expressed concern over the outbreak of Circulating Vaccine-derived Poliovirus Type 2 (cVDPV2) in 13 states and the FCT.
The states are Abia, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Lagos, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto, Yobe, Zamfara and FCT.
NPHCDA executive director, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this yesterday at the 2nd quarter review meeting of Northern Traditional Leader’s Committee On Primary Health Care (PHC) Delivery, in Abuja.
He said “Nigeria as we are all aware has been certified Wild Polio Virus (WPV) free, however, there are cases of cVDPV2 in some states, hence the need for us as a country to jealously guard our WPV-Free status and stop the cVDPV2 transmission in our communities.
“As at today, we have cVDPV2 outbreaks in Abia, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, FCT, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Lagos, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara and we have conducted four Out-Break Responses (OBRs) using the Novelle Oral Polio Vaccine.”
Shuaib however said that sub-optimal performance has been recorded in all the states due to the high number of missed children during the OBR. “This poor quality will affect how we are able to bring this outbreak under control,” he added.
Represented by Dr. Usman Adamu, Shuaib noted that donor funding for Polio has reduced drastically. He pleaded with His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, to use his influence to urge political leaders to keep funding polio outbreak response campaigns.
In his remarks, the sultan of Sokoto, said while Nigeria has been certified polio free, the reality remains that the country is not out of the woods as cases of CVDPV2 continue to spread in states that have been polio-free for nearly seven years.
Represented by the chairman, Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on Immunisation and PHC, the Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Samaila Muhammad Mera, the Sultan said “lest we forget, routine immunisation coverage is very poor and cases of maternal mortality are still unacceptably high in our community. I am encouraged and proud of the action taken by some members of the traditional institution especially from this committee who presented themselves publicly to be vaccinated.
“I suggest the NPHCDA and PTF on Covid-19 should take advantage of the availability of such images of community influencers across the board to motivate the general population to accept the vaccine.
“We would continue to do our utmost best to support all health and related programmes of the federal government,” he said.
