Nigeria - Polio vaccination uptake not good enough

Citation

(2006), "Nigeria - Polio vaccination uptake not good enough", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 19 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2006.06219fab.008

Nigeria - Polio vaccination uptake not good enough

NigeriaPolio vaccination uptake not good enough

Keywords: Public health, Partnership

Far too few children are being vaccinated for polio in Nigeria, the world’s last hotspot for the crippling virus whose infection rate has more than tripled this year, a top United Nations health official said. David Heymann, who heads the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) polio eradication unit, said he was worried by a surge in Nigerian polio cases to 250 since the start of the year, compared to just 78 in the same period in 2005.

The only area in the world that has an increase in polio is Nigeria, and therefore that’s the country the WHO really needs to be most concerned about, Heymann told Reuters in an interview ahead of the WHO’s annual assembly.

In five Northern Nigerian states, which account for nearly 70 percent of global polio cases, the WHO estimates that 40 per cent of children have not received any oral polio vaccine. Heymann said 85-90 per cent of children would need to receive multiple doses of the two-drop liquid medicine to successfully halt Nigeria’s transmission.

The WHO launched a campaign in 1988 to wipe out polio, which can paralyse a child for life within hours, but failed to reach its target of halting its spread by the end of last year. Nigeria is one of four countries that have never managed to stamp out the virus, along with Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. Local leaders in Nigeria’s mostly Muslim North suspended vaccinations for nearly a year from mid-2003, alleging they caused sterility or AIDS. Left uncontrolled, Heymann said Nigerian polio could spread into West and Central Africa, the Middle East and even to Asia, carried by Nigerian traders and pilgrims. Heymann said he hoped a new Nigerian plan to administer the polio vaccine at a fixed site also offering other medical treatments, followed by door-to-door checks for missed children, could help increase access to the medicine.

WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook last month took the rare step of writing to all of the UN health agency’s 192 member states to warn about the risks from polio in Nigeria and to urge continued vaccinations to contain the virus.

Heymann said “stronger recommendations,” including requests to postpone unnecessary travel to polio-affected countries or requirements that residents from endemic areas be vaccinated before leaving, might be necessary in time.

Heymann expected that Saudi Arabia will announce this very shortly. Heymann said despite challenges in Nigeria, he believed the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a partnership between WHO, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Rotary International and the US-based Center for Disease Control, could stop worldwide polio transmission by the end of next year.

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