Vaccination campaign targets a ‘Polio-free’ Nigeria after decade of political, terrorism conflicts

The World Health Organisation, or WHO, will possibly remove Nigeria from the list of polio endemic countries after more than a decade of struggle with the disease. The Nigerian government and health officials marked July 24 as the first year of not recording a single case of polio due to its effective vaccination campaign.

The Nigerian Senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki, said in a statement that Nigeria succeeded in eradicating polio after the disease that deformed children and caused high death rates for those less than 5 years of age had become endemic in the country. A child from a northern state was recorded as the last treated case of polio in the country on July 24, Saraki stated.

The achievement was a product of persistent hard work by Nigeria’s partners, religious and community leaders as well as health workers despite the increase in cases in past years driven by rumours about the vaccine and political instability. Before the vaccination campaign became fully effective, the country faced several conflicts that delayed the treatment of the disease.

In 2003, a year-long ban was implemented to ensure the safety of the vaccine after Muslim clerics and some state governors suggested the vaccine allegedly contained HIV aimed at Muslims to sterilize the population. Following the controversial ban, the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram began an insurgency campaign against the use of vaccine at the time the disease was endemic. The Islamic group held parts of the north-eastern Nigeria for several months, threatened health workers and killed nine vaccinators in February 2013 in a health clinic in the northern city of Kano.

The senate president said he was pleased by the success of polio eradication, as the country faced over 1,000 combined recorded cases of circulating vaccine-derived cases with endemic transmission and wild cases in 21 states since 2005.

Polio disease has become endemic to Nigeria for over a decade since 2003. Polio, a disease caused by a virus that spreads through unhygienic environments, infects the nervous system and can cause permanent paralysis on the victim, most commonly children.

The WHO, before formally removing the country from the list of polio-endemic countries, stated that Nigeria will need to have no new cases of the disease until 2017. The previously affected areas will be monitored to ensure the effect of the vaccine before formally declaring the African country polio-free.

The polio, if eradicated globally, will be the second human infectious disease to be eradicated through effective vaccination campaign after smallpox. The eradication of polio would save at least US$ 40–50 billion over the next 20 years, mostly in low-income countries, according to the WHO media centre.

However, Saraki and health officials, despite the progress, suggest the vaccination levels need to be constantly monitored to prevent the country from being polio endemic again. With Nigeria publicly considered polio-free, there are only three countries where polio remain endemic – Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

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