Nigeria’s ministry of health has confirmed two fresh cases
of wild polio virus, few weeks after celebrating two years without a single
case. The cases have also been confirmed by the World Health
Organisation, with Isaac Adewole, Nigeria’s minister of health, saying this is
a big setback for the nation on health issues.
Adewole, who spoke to journalists in Abuja on Thursday, said
everything will be done to halt the spread of the virus. “It is unfortunate that we have the development. It has set
us back. But I can assure the nation that we will do everything possible to be
on top of the situation,” he said.
“We are meeting again today. We had a meeting yesterday to
look at the situation. We are drawing out an emergency plan and in the next 48
hours, we are dispatching a team there and we are going to start immunization. “We would do three rounds of special immunization campaigns
to make sure that we contain the situation.”
He added that “one of the cases is from Gwoza, which is
actually close to the border”, while the other one is Jere. “We suspect that both of them are linked to the insurgents
eclipse,” he said.
“Mr. President himself, when we had a meeting last week,
observed that as we liberate more areas, we should expect challenges. But we
did not expect that there would be polio. We were expecting nutrition and other
problems. “As a nation, we will rise up to the challenge. We are
assured by our international partners and we will launch a robust response. We
have enough funding for immunization in the 2016 budget.
“We have more projections for 2017 and 2018. We are robustly
supported by international partners. We have signed on to a World Bank loan to
make ensure that we have enough funding. So, I think money is not the issue.
The issue has to do with the access and the insurgency operations.”
Aliko Dangote had warned at the second anniversary of the
last recorded polio case that the battle against polio had not be totally won.
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