Nigeria Reaches Polio 'Milestone'

Nigeria will need three years without polio cases to be declared free of the disease (WHO/T.Moran)

Nigeria has been removed from the list of polio endemic countries in what is being regarded as a "milestone" on the quest to eradicate the disease. The announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO), was made at a meeting of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in New York.

It follows Nigeria going more than a year without a case of wild - naturally occurring - polio.

Three years without cases are required before it can be declared polio free.

BBC report continues:

The decision means there are just two endemic countries - Pakistan and Afghanistan - where transmission of the paralyzing virus has never been interrupted.

Jean Gough, UNICEF country representative in Nigeria, told BBC Health Reporter: "This is an important milestone, but it is too early to celebrate. We need to continue the efforts at every level if polio is to be eradicated."

Polio is spread by poor sanitation and contaminated water and usually affects children.

The virus attacks the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis - usually of the legs - within hours.

GPEI was established in 1988 when tens of thousands of children in more than 125 countries were paralyzed by polio each year.

Partner organizations include the WHO, Rotary International and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This Egyptian stele (an upright stone carving) dating from 1403-1365 BC shows a priest with a walking stick and foot, deformities characteristic of polio. The disease was given its first clinical description in 1789 by the British physician Michael Underwood, and recognized as a condition by Jakob Heine in 1840. The first modern epidemics were fuelled by the growth of cities after the industrial revolution.

Challenge

Nigeria's progress against polio has been hard-fought.

In 2003, some northern states boycotted the oral polio vaccine for nearly a year after scare stories that it caused sterilization.

It led to the virus spreading to many countries that had been declared polio free.

In 2013 nine vaccinators were shot dead in Kano. But instead of being a deterrent, it galvanized support at every level.

The Nigerian government declared polio a national health emergency and greatly increased the number of vaccinators.

And community and religious leaders voiced their support.

As a result, the number of families refusing to have their children immunized has decreased sharply.

Boko Haram

The success has come despite the Islamist militant insurgency in north-east Nigeria.

Earlier this month Unicef said half a million children had fled attacks by Boko Haram over the past five months.

Vaccine teams have been focussing attention on displaced families who have moved elsewhere in Nigeria, as well as fleeing to neighbouring countries like Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Polio progress

By 1988, polio had disappeared from the US, UK, Australia and much of Europe but remained prevalent in more than 125 countries. The same year, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to eradicate the disease completely by the year 2000. Image caption In 2015, polio remains endemic in only two countries - Pakistan and Afghanistan. No new cases have been reported in Africa for the past year.

Wild polio

Nigeria, like the rest of the world, is switching from the oral polio vaccine, given in two drops into the mouth, to an injectable, inactivated form of polio vaccine (IPV).

The oral vaccine, which contains a weakened vaccine virus, can in extremely rare cases, cause a form of polio - circulation vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV).

There has been one case of cVDPV in Nigeria this year.

It's more than a year since there has been a case of wild polio in Africa.

Eradicating the disease from the continent would be a huge achievement.

But health officials fear a resurgence of the disease unless efforts are continued to immunize every child.

India was declared polio free last year.

So far this year there have been 41 cases of wild polio worldwide, compared to 200 at the same point last year.