The National Primary Health Care Development Agency has said that the polio free status of Nigeria is not in anyway under threat.
“Nigeria and the African region were certified WPV-free on the 25thAugust 2020 and therefore, the polio-free status of the country is not in any way under threat”,
The Executive Director of the Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib stated this in a statement in reaction to reports in some sections of the Media claiming an outbreak of a new polio variant in some States.
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This, he said, is a gross misrepresentation of the facts adding that no case of WPV has been reported anywhere in the country since the last case in 2016.
According to Dr Shuaib what is being misconstrued for an outbreak of WPV is the detection, through their robust disease surveillance system of 22 cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis, spread across seven (7) States (Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara).
These non-wild polio viruses, he further explained, originated as a result of normal changes in the reproduction of viruses.
The Executive Director therefore asssured Nigerians that the Agency and partners will continue to conduct surveillance and vaccination campaigns in order to prevent and contain any possible importation of the Wild Polio Virus.