Today is World Polio Day. World Polio Day highlights the global efforts to end polio or poliomyelitis worldwide. The World Health Assembly committed to eradicate the disease in 1988. The celebration every October 24, according to the World Health Organization, raises awareness on the importance of polio vaccination to protect every child from this devastating disease, and to celebrate the many parents, professionals and volunteers whose contributions make polio eradication achievable.
Polio or poliomyelitis, caused by poliovirus, is a paralyzing and potentially deadly infectious disease that most commonly affects children under the age of five. The virus spreads from person to person mostly through contaminated water. It can then attack the nervous system.
Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it is crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio free. It is worthy to note that if all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year.
So far, more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries have been immunized against the disease but the war is not yet over. In Nigeria, the house-to-house routine vaccination campaign is often adopted in various communities across the country to teach the women the importance of ante-natal care and routine immunization so that when they give birth, they will know when to take the child for vaccination.
Nigeria’s battle with poliomyelitis has been a huge success. So far, there has been no recorded case of wild polio virus since 2016. The last case was recorded in Borno state in 2016. Significantly, in September 2015, Nigeria was removed from the list of polio endemic countries and subsequently declared free of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) on August 24, 2020 following the absence of indigenous transmission for three years.
This milestone means that it is possible for the WHO to declare Africa to wild polio virus free next year. Nigeria’s success is the result of several sustained efforts, including domestic and international financing, the commitment of thousands of health workers, and strategies to immunize children who previously couldn’t be reached because of a lack of security in the northern states.
The fight against polio, no doubt is an uphill task and cannot be left alone to Governments or just Rotary International, a non-governmental and international organization that has been committed to the fight against polio globally for the past forty-five years. It requires the full backing of all and sundry, including traditional institutions, churches and other nongovernmental and voluntary organizations. Effective partnerships will ensure sustainable results.
After all is said and done, there is the need to maintain vigilance for any potential resurgence of wild polio virus and to arm health providers with verified and up-to-date information to counter misinformation and reservations against vaccines, vaccine distrust and hesitancy.
Unrelenting prioritization of polio eradication and global support is still needed to achieve a polio-free world.
Written by ABUCHI NWOZOR
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