The World Health Organization has called the recent increase in the spread of the polio virus a “public health emergency”. Two years ago, the polio virus was spotted in only four countries while this year, globally, polio has increased by more than 15% with 10 countries reporting new cases.
However, in Nigeria the number of new polio cases this year has reduced by 85% to four cases reported compared to twenty-six cases reported in the same time frame in 2013. Kazeem Mustapha, Vice Chairman of Rotary International’s Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee said, “We have never gotten this close to eradicating polio. If you look at the statistics compared to last year, we’ve really done very good.”
There is more to be done, especially in Northern Nigeria where most of the polio cases are found. Despite more than a year of emergency rule in three of the northern states, Mustapha made it known that vaccination teams are still operating in these areas and trying out new strategies so as to meet their polio eradication goals in Nigeria.
Mustapha is still confident that Nigeria will soon be close to declaring the country polio-free by the end of 2014. The country’s last reported polio case was in May and it takes three years to declare a country polio-free.
