Nigeria is set to stop the transmission of the wild polio virus.
In an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP, the executive director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, (NPHCDA), Dr Ado Muhammed, revealed that since July 2014, no case of wild polio virus was reported in Nigeria.
He said, “It is almost a feat. About few weeks away, it will be one year without a case of polio in Nigeria. That translates to Nigeria interrupting wild polio virus transmission for the very first time in the history of this country.”
He explained that Nigeria would be taken off the list of polio endemic countries, two years after, which would be in 2017, if there was no re-infection of polio and no new case reported after two years post-interruption.
“Nigeria would be deemed to have eradicated polio and will be issued a certificate. Interruption is one year after the last case which will be in about five weeks time precisely on July 24, 2015. Then eradication will be two years after the date of interruption.
“So we have made a lot of progress. The whole world is looking at Nigeria. We have been commended by Mr Bill Gates when he said it is the most success story for 2014.”
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He added that the effort of the national primary health care development agency in terms of leading the fight against polio has also been commended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), saying, “We just returned from the WHO meeting in Geneva where the WHO director-general said that the most interesting programme performance is that of the NPHCDA which is about interrupting wild polio virus transmission. We have also been commended by the oversight body of the WHO which noted that Nigeria has done so much and was tipped as the next country to eradicate polio after India.The whole world is celebrating Nigeria.”
He, however, cautioned that care should be taken as the country has never been this close to interrupting the virus.
“We should be very conscious as we have never been this close. Even after we interrupt transmission in few weeks’ time, it is important we sustain the game because the interruption is only a milestone. Our goal is eradication,” he added.(Leadership)
