If there is one piece of news making Nigerians happy, it is that from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the country has been removed from the list of polio-endemic nations. The announcement is coming after the historic achievement in interrupting the transmission of wild poliovirus for a period of 15 months. With this development, only two countries –Afghanistan and Pakistan now remain polio-endemic. Before now, Nigeria accounted for over half of all polio cases worldwide. Therefore, the remarkable change in the narrative represents a great positive leap forward. According to WHO, the eradication of poliovirus is the result of a concerted effort by all levels of government, civil society, religious leaders and tens of thousands of dedicated health workers?
Even though removal from the list is not a definitive indication of freedom from polio, there is cause for optimism that the two-year wait to qualify for full polio-free certification will perfect Nigeria’s polio-free status. Much as welcome the news, Nigeria should not rest on her oars, thinking that the last has been heard of this debilitating disease. Rather, the country should see the effort to keep the virus at bay as its responsibility and ensure that whether financial aid comes from abroad or not, the feat achieved would not be lost to bureaucracy and the perennial excuse of lack of funds that form the pretext for not sustaining a set objective.
That is why we welcome President Muhammadu Buhari’s pledge to keep up the momentum as well as maintain and improve on the country’s surveillance system as well as raise the childhood population immunity against the poliovirus. In addition, we urge institutions involved in the fight against polio to continue to do everything they did right, which helped in the achievement of the success story we are now celebrating. In the light of this, they should continuously think out ways to deepen the success accomplished, so that polio will forever remain outdated in Nigeria.
Only three years ago, Nigeria looked like the last place that would eliminate polio, a highly infectious and potentially fatal disease that invades the nervous system and paralysed 1,000 children a day as late as the 1980s. Measured against other equally difficult health challenges, such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria, the polio fight is certainly a great achievement. Now that the world is within a ‘touching distance’ of eradicating polio, Nigeria and the whole world can help make the last round of the battle against polio less difficult by sensitising the public, especially rural communities on the deadly danger of the virus. There should be sensitisation programme on community hygiene and other sanitary issues.
Against this backdrop, the country’s political and health authorities have their work cut out for them. It is necessary to provide unrestricted running water to the people, and to ensure hygienic human waste disposal, among other important actions. We therefore appeal to governments at all levels, traditional and religious leaders, as well as the private sector to redouble their efforts to keep this paralysing and deadly scourge at bay.
source on Honeyland News