Even as the world has not been so close to the eradication of polio, yet Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan are still battling to protect children against polio virus. The poliomyelitis virus attacks the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection. It spreads among young children and in areas with poor sanitation. In Nigeria, the North East and North West regions are reported to be lagging behind in routine immunization coverage, hence the need to intensify effort to ensure success.
Experts posit that one of the major causes responsible for the slow progress in implementing polio and other routine immunization programs is the low commitment to immunization at both state and local government levels. This challenge among others, might have informed UNICEF’s decision to engage Journalists Against Poliomyelitis and for Immunisation (JAP) in Sokoto state to participate in the fIPV/OPV, November 2018 round which covers 8 out of the 23 LGAs in the state. The Selected LBAs are: Yabo, Wurno, Dange-Shuni, Bodinga, Kware, Sokoto North, Sokoto South and Wamakko.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) consultant in Sokoto, Dr. Larai Aliyu Tambuwal, there is 5% rejection in the state, “We are almost there, but might not get there unless more commitment from all stakeholders is demonstrated. As long as polio exists anywhere, children everywhere are at risk.”
Records available to both government and development partners indicate the healthcare cost savings attributable to the campaign to eradicate polio are estimated at tens of billions of dollars through the year 2035. While the net benefit of the entire polio eradication programme, such as the supplemental vitamins included in ova vaccine, is estimated to have generated about ninety billion dollars in savings and prevented an additional 5.4 million child deaths.
The current round of fIPV/OPV immunization exercise for the under 5 year children, is recording improvement in turnout in designated health facilities schools and health camps. At Wurno LGA, where the Target population for OPV is 61077 children, 17686 children were immunized by day 2 (29%) while fIPV target is 58204 children with 16291 immunized (28%).
At Yabo LGA, there are ten wards with 32 vaccination teams and a target population of 38,192 under 5 children for the 6 days exercise the LGA has 802 fIPV and 2010 OPV for use as at the time of JAP visitation. JAP met a mother Aisha who brought her 2 week old infant, Abdullahi, for immunization. While fielding questions to JAP she disclosed that it was a VCN (Voluntary Community Mobiliser) a female that visited, her talked to her, convinced her of the importance of immunization and her husband allowed her to get the child immunized.
According to official records that last case of polio was seen in 2012 at Lahodu, Wurno LGA where 10 year old Abubakar Keli was identified, since then there has not been any reported case. Sustaining effort to eradicate polio is very crucial because for now it is the development partners that bear the cost of all immunization vaccines and other antigens aside cost of paying staff deployed for such campaigns. This means when partners wind down their interventions, these costs will fall back on both the federal and state government.
To ensure eradication, government has to introduce legal measures that would enforce compliment before time runs out, in addition to improving commitment to the global eradication effort.
