The Chairman, Experts Review Committee on polio eradication, Oyewale Tomori,
has said that Nigeria can only be certified polio-free in 2018 “if the
country does not record any new case of polio this year.”
He
made the declaration during the 29th meeting of the ERC on Polio and
Routine Immunization, held at Rockview Royale Hotel, Abuja.
Professor Tomori said that, according t0 the World Health Organization (WHO) regulations regarding polio, a country must record a 3 years no-polio trace.
“For
you to be totally free of polio, would take three years before we can
be certified polio free. Polio transmission is just a step in the way;
polio eradication is what we are looking for to make sure that there are
no new cases of polio in the next three years,” Tomori said.
“The
wild polio which we recorded last year (2014) is an issue we need to
pay attention to by making sure that this country is totally free of
either of the two types of viruses. The job is not finished; there is
the need for more funds, because it is even more difficult in the last
stage. To rid this country of polio, funding must not only be sustained
but improved,” he added.
“The activities
we have done so far in this year’s surveillance and making sure they get
to the children must be intensified. This country took care of Ebola by
doing aggressive surveillance and with aggressive vaccination of our
children, we can get rid of polio in Nigeria,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment