The fight against all forms of polio may have been won, but according to Eduardo Celades, UNICEF's Chief of Health in Nigeria, too many children in that country are still being affected by the circulating poliovirus.
The impact of COVID-19 on the health system and the level of insecurity in the nation, according to Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire, provide difficulties to the onslaught of re-emerging Variants of the Polio Virus (cVPV2).
Speaking yesterday in Abuja at the celebration of the third anniversary of the eradication of the wild polio virus in Nigeria, Celades noted that while the country's routine immunisation rate had increased, the number of children who had had no vaccinations had decreased.
He declared that it was time for the nation to improve immunisation even more.
In Borno State in 2016, Nigeria reported its last case of the wild polio virus.
Walter Kazadi Mulombo, WHO's representative for Nigeria, praised the country for its 80 percent reduction in the number of cVPDV2 infections among Acute Faccid Paralysis sufferers despite the peak of the rainy season.
Ehanire has before said that cVPV2 remains are found in the environment as a result of inadequate environmental sanitation.
They might be virulent, he warned, and impact kids who aren't part of the regular vaccine programme.
Tags
HEALTH
