Auwalu was a bubbly eight-year-old boy. He was in school one afternoon when he suddenly fell down for no clear reason. His mates picked him up asking what went wrong to which he complained of a headache.
He was subsequently allowed to go home. Being poor, his parents could not afford a hospital bill so they treated him on local herbs at home. After a few days, the young boy found that he could no longer stand on his feet. It was then they were forced to go to the hospital. He was diagnosed with poliomylitis popularly called polio.
Following a medical misadventure in the northern part of the country several years ago in which a drug trial by Pfizer (one of the country’s leading pharmaceutical companies) led to the death of many children, the people of the area had developed a widespread sceptism for medical experiments.
In fact some community leaders and district heads stopped polio immunization teams from administering drugs on their children altogether. However, when a new outbreak of the disease occurred, the state government wasted no time in arresting one of such district heads who was making it impossible to immunize the children.
The current outbreak currently affecting some states in the north is called “wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1)”, which has begun to spread internationally.
In 2008, a nine-fold increase in new cases caused by this serotype has been reported compared with what it was at the same time in 2007. This outbreak has the likelihood of spreading internationally as was the case between 2003 and 2006. This year, Nigeria alone accounts for 86% of WPV1 cases in the world.
The new outbreak in Nigeria is reportedly so because no less than 20% of children remain un-immunized in key high-risk areas. Between 2003 and 2006, an outbreak in the north led to a national and international spread of the disease, eventually re-infecting 20 previously polio-free countries and causing outbreaks in places so far as Indonesia and Yemen, and resulting in 1,475 cases in these 20 countries.
New WPV1 genetically linked to viruses from northern Nigeria has now been confirmed in Benin (one case, onset 17 April 2008) and the western part of Niger (1 case, in Tillaberry province, close to the borders with Burkina Faso and Mali; onset 11 April 2008).
It is from these areas that WPV1 originating from Nigeria spread across the west, central and Horn of Africa between 2003 and 2004, re-infecting – among others – Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Togo. In addition to an international spread of WPV1 from northern Nigeria, wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) originating from northern Nigeria has been reported in Chad (onset of most recent case 13 April 2008).
The risk of renewed international spread of polio from Nigeria is increasing due to the intensity of the outbreak in the north, the rainy season which is associated with increased transmission of poliovirus, and the anticipated movement of people in a large scale for the year’s Hajj to Mecca, Saudi Arabia towards the end of the year . Saudi Arabia has been notified of the increased risk of polio infection to Hajj pilgrims.
Nigeria planned two large-scale rounds of emergency polio immunization in the northern states for July and August which have been carried out. Large-scale emergency polio immunization campaigns were also conducted in June in high-risk and border areas of Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, followed by additional campaigns in July.
Meanwhile, in the whole of the north, Kano is still leading in polio cases with 258 of the 722 reported cases in the country, though there are no fresh cases reported from September to date.
A victim resorts to street begging The Kano State Ministry of Health, Public Relations Officer (PRO), Hajiya Maryam Yarima Muh’d, said the state had taken various steps to curtail the rampant cases of the disease in the state.
According to her, of the 722 cases reported polio-infected children in the country, as at the end of September, Kano had a total of 258.
The number of polio cases , she said, had been drastically reduced , adding that this was due to a number of steps taken by the state as well as the cooperation given her ministry by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
Among the steps taken by the Ministry, according to Hajiya Maryam Muh’d, are the enlightenment campaigns embarked upon , especially by the Islamiya schools as well as notable leaders in the state.
She further revealed that unlike in the past when the Islamiya was not giving its co-operation on immunization, it now recognized the need for this regarding the children in its schools.
The ministry has also embarked on a series of campaign to educate people at the grassroots level on why they should. The various moves, said the commissioner, had garnered an unflinching support for the ministry and led to a reduction in polio infection in Kano State.
Hajiya Maryam Muh’d, however, attributed the high rate of polio in the state to the fact that Kano was the most populous state in the country, a commercial center, as well as a state capital, a situation, she added, that regularly brought people from neighboring states for commercial activities.
In a similar development, the World Health Organization (WHO) has raised an alarm over the upsurge in the cases of poliomyelitis in Zamfara State. Only recently the cases of the virus jerked up from 69 to 72 cases in the State.
In the latest report of the virus provided during a one-day workshop for journalists in Zamfara State held in Gusau recently, Kano State came first with over 200 cases, Zamfara with 72 while Katsina State took a third place of the 23 States affected with 57 cases.
Delivering a paper during the training, the National Immunization Officer of the WHO in Zamfara State, Hajiya Safia Suleiman Ismaila, said there was urgent need for all the stakeholders in the health sector of the state to work towards addressing the situation.
She said 200 sample of stools had been taken to the University College Hospital, Ibadan, for polio virus tests, stressing that the total cases of polio in Zamfara State had gone up.
She identified poor environmental sanitation, low routine immunizations and non-compliance by parents during immunizations as the bane of the upsurge in the cases of polio in Zamfara State.
Delivering a paper on the role and responsibility of journalists on polio eradication campaign, Dr. Abdullahi Giwa, called for a timely dissemination of information and data on polio immunization activities and tasked media practitioners to avoid controversial reporting of immunization activities for scoops.
With the new upsurge in polio cases it is clear that this time around parents are not likely to take chances.
SATURDAY TRIBUNE
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