The World Health Organization (WHO) has lauded the Federal Government’s efforts in reducing the prevalence of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) by 93 per cent in four years, from 2019 till date.
It also commended interventions that led to reaching over 2 million children in insecure areas with vaccines for the first time in 3 years.
Lafiya360 reports that the global health body further acknowledged the maintaining of optimal capacity of the Acute Flaccid Paralysis surveillance sensitivity, improvement in the supply of novel Oral Polio Vaccine (nOPV2), and the enhanced laboratory capacity for genomic sequencing in Ibadan.
It, however, noted that the global risk of wild poliovirus (WPV) and circulating Vaccine Polio Variants (cVPVs) transmission remains high given the endemicity of WPV1 in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the residual risks in cVPV1 and cVPV2 in Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa Republic and other 12 countries in the region.
The WHO, therefore, called on the Nigerian Government to address the residual risk of persistent cases of cVPV2 in Northwest states, while maintaining resilience mostly in the southern zones.
Speaking during the Expert Review Committee (ERC) meeting on Polio and Routine Immunization, the Country Representative of WHO, Dr. Walter Mulombo said, “WHO has redistributed over 3,000 surge staff to respond to the current epidemiology with average increase of about 20 per cent in Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Zamfara, and sufficient spread of surge staff to Southern states to sustain the gain made.
“As we progress towards zero cases of cVPV2, it is becoming more imperative that Nigeria is further guided and supported to bring to the front burner the urgency to recover, sustain and build resilience for its primary health care.
“The current outbreak of diphtheria shows significant gaps in this regard, hence the need for a call to action.
“With a successful political transition, Nigeria has continued to strive towards a journey to zero for cVPV2 since the last ERC.
“More than 13 rounds of SIAs have been conducted with commensurate increase in quality particularly in accessible areas. The country continues to deploy innovative strategies in insecure areas through stronger community engagement and collaboration with partners.
“Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina and Kebbi have been identified as axis of intractable transmission, thus requiring additional resources and cooperation of stakeholders for more impactful reach with surveillance and vaccines.
“Reaching and sustaining zero cases of cVPV2 in Nigeria in 2023 is achievable if we can continue to strengthen the partnership to surmount the current risks.”
In his remarks, the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib harped on the urgent need to ramp-up the primary healthcare system by investing more.
He said, “We are beginning to see the situation where if parents, guardians don’t take their kids for routine immunization, then it exposes kids to vaccine-preventable diseases such as what we’re seeing with diphtheria outbreak in Kano states, in Katsina state, in Bauchi states, in Yobe states and environments.
“This is because parents are not taking their kids for routine immunization. We cannot continue to campaign our way out of these types of situations.
“It is important that parents actually take up their responsibilities and make sure that these vaccines that are provided free of charge to all members of the communities are accessed by parents. We’re working with the leadership of the states to make sure that we provide the vaccines and the medications that are necessary to contain these outbreaks.”
The Chairman of the ERC on Polio and Routine Immunization, Prof. Akin Osibogun stressed that the country needs to be consistent in its efforts to prevent any resurgence of disease outbreak.
He said, “The main challenges that hinder the achievements of some of the recommendations, of course included the absence of funding to facilitate the conduct of outbreak response within seven days of receipt of lab results because this is a strategy that we all identified can help us in our struggle.”