DAKAR – Rotary International on Wednesday announced a grant of 8.4 million dollars to Nigeria to assist the country’s polio fight.
In a statement issued in Dakar, Rotary said the grant came ahead of the Oct. 24 observance of the World Polio Day.
It stated that the grant was part of Rotary’s broader contribution of 44.7 million dollars to end the paralysing disease worldwide.
It added that it would be used by UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to support high quality polio immunisation campaigns in Nigeria.
Rotary pointed out that with a 90 per cent reduction in polio cases, Nigeria was close to ending the transmission of the polio virus.
“The funding commitment follows Nigeria’s 90 per cent reduction in polio cases in 2014, compared with 2013 cases, with only six cases recorded to date in 2014,’’ the statement noted.
It said that Nigeria reported the highest number of polio cases in the world in 2012, adding that “along with Pakistan and Afghanistan, Nigeria is one of only three countries where the wild polio virus never stopped.
“We will not stop fighting this disease until every child in Nigeria and the world is safe from this crippling disease,” Dr Tunji Funsho, Rotary’s National PolioPlus Chair for Nigeria, said.
Meanwhile, experts had reportedly warned that Nigeria’s progress against polio, while significant, was fragile and the recent decline in polio cases was due to attention of leaders at all levels of the Nigerian government in ending the disease.
“High-level oversight of the polio programme must continue, even during upcoming presidential and state elections and during efforts to keep Ebola out of Nigeria’s borders,’’ Funsho remarked.
Meanwhile, for the second year in a row, Rotary would mark World Polio Day with a livestream event featuring a global status update on the fight to end polio, as well as an array of guest speakers and performers.
Rotary provides grant funding to polio eradication initiative partners UNICEF and the World Health Organisation, which work with governments and Rotary club members of polio-affected countries to plan and carry out immunisation activities.
“Mass immunisation of children, via the oral polio vaccine, must continue until global eradication is achieved,’’ Rotary International emphasised. (PANA/NAN)