A four-fold
increase in polio has been reported in Nigeria, with the disease
spreading to other countries, a World Health Organisation official
says.
Forty-three cases
were reported in Nigeria this year, compared to 11 last year, the
official, Thomas Moran, said. Curbing the polio
virus in Nigeria is key to eradicating the crippling disease in
Africa, he said.
In 2003, northern
Nigeria's Muslim leaders leaders opposed vaccinations, claiming they
could cause infertility. Nigeria is one of
four countries in the world - along with Pakistan, India and
Afghanistan - where polio is still a major health risk.
'Strong leadership'
Mr Moran told the
BBC the disease had also spread to neighbouring Niger, Mali and Ivory
Coast. "The
success of polio eradication in Africa rests on Nigeria interrupting
the virus," he said.
Polio was affecting
eight northern Nigerian states - two more than a few months ago, the
head of Nigeria's National Primary Healthcare Development Agency
(NPHDA), Dr Ado Muhammad, told the BBC.
Mr Moran said the
Nigerian government had shown "strong leadership" in the
campaign to eradicate polio and the WHO had been carrying out large
scale vaccination programmes to prevent the disease from spreading. "The immunity
profile of Nigerian children is far better [now], which limits the
risk of international spread of the virus," Mr Moran said. He also stressed
that the number of children affected remained low. "You can call
it a four-fold increase but it is still very low transmission in a
country as large as Nigeria with almost 50m children under five,"
he said.
At the Commonwealth
summit last month, the leaders of Nigeria, Canada, the UK and
Australia pledged millions of dollars towards the global effort to
eradicate polio. In 2003, the
northern Nigerian state of Kano backed Muslim religious leaders in
opposing an immunisation programme, claiming it was a Western plot to
make people infertile. Health experts say
this led to many people becoming infected by polio. The clerics and the
state government later dropped their opposition to the immunisation
programme.
In 2007, there was
a rare outbreak of a vaccine-derived form of polio in northern
Nigeria. It affected 69
children who had been vaccinated.
Asociación de Afectados de Polio y Síndrome Post-Polio
Post-Polio Syndrome and Polio Affected Association- Spain