 |
In
this photo taken on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2016, a health official administers a
polio vaccine to a child at a camp for people displaced by Islamist Extremist
in Maiduguri, Nigeria. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)
|
The World Health
Organization has confirmed a third case of polio in an area of Nigeria newly
liberated from Boko Haram Islamic extremists, the Rotary Club said Monday, amid
fears the disease could resurge in neighboring countries.
Associated Press report continues:
The
West African nation that once was the global epicenter of the wild polio virus
had been declared polio-free last year, along with the African continent. But
two cases were discovered last month among refugees from areas recently won
back by Nigeria's military from Boko Haram.
More
cases are expected to be discovered in these areas. It is an indicator that
Nigeria's war on the crippling disease cannot be won until it overcomes the
insurgency by extremists who are violently opposed to Western medicine.
Rotary
Club's field coordinator, Aminu Muhammad, told The Associated Press the new
case, a 2-year-old boy, was found in Monguno local government area last month.
The others were further south in Jere and Gwoza. All are in northeastern Borno
state, where WHO says more than half of the health facilities are not functioning
because of the fighting.
Rotary
is part of a new emergency immunization drive that vaccinated more than 1.5
million children last week in Borno, where WHO has said the virus has been
circulating undetected for five years and where Boko Haram began its Islamic
uprising in 2009.
The
campaign plans to reach 31.5 million children in northern Nigeria and 56.4
million across the country before the end of the year, according to the
country's health ministry.
But
the U.N. Children's Fund has warned that about 1 million children are in areas
too dangerous to access.
The
new cases "mean children across the Lake Chad region are now at particular
risk," the director of polio eradication for UNICEF, Reza Hossaini, said
last month.
 |
| In this photo taken on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016 health officials administers polio vaccine to children at a camp for people displaced by Islamist Extremist in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Sunday Aug. 28, 2016. Health workers using military helicopters, all-terrain vehicles and tricycle taxis vaccinated hundreds of thousands of children this week, fighting the return of crippling polio in areas newly freed from Boko Haram extremists who violently oppose Western medicine. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) |
The
Lake Chad Basin area, where Boko Haram is active, is shared by Nigeria,
Cameroon, Chad and Niger, some of the world's poorest states.
Nigeria's
Health Minister Isaac Adewole also has warned of the risk, "given previous
history of exportation to other countries and the suboptimal routine
immunization coverage in several (African) countries."
Nigeria's
military has helped with the vaccination drive, which included logistics and
other aid from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the United Nations and
Britain's Save the Children as well as government health workers. Military
helicopters flew vaccines into places too dangerous to reach by road, and
truckloads of troops and armored cars escorted vaccinators elsewhere.
Muhammad
said they were using "hit and run" tactics to reach kids in areas
where Boko Haram is present.
Nigeria's
military has said it has the insurgents "on the run" and needs only
to clear them out of border areas and their northeastern stronghold in the
Sambisa Forest. But a map used in the vaccination campaign shows almost all of
Borno state is only "partially accessible," with four northern areas
"inaccessible" and only the extreme south "accessible."
Boko
Haram's uprising has forced some 2.6 million people from their homes in Nigeria
and neighboring countries.
There
has been no major attack in months by the group, which is in the throes of a
leadership struggle.
Polio
remains in only two other countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, also in areas
affected by Islamic extremism.
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