The National Primary Health Care Development Agency(NPHCDA) has said the report from Malawi indicates that the Agency must strengthen the system in order to avoid an outbreak of Wild Polio Virus(WPV) in Nigeria.
The Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib while delivering his speech on Monday at the 38th Expert Review Committee(ERC) Meeting on Polio and Routine Immunisation lamented that the circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2(cVDPV2), has been a major concern during the last ERC meeting.
Shuaib further said, today the outbreak has snow-balled to even greater proportions to become one of the greatest challenges the country has faced in the polio programme, apart from the recent detection of Wild Polio Virus type 1 (WPV1) in Malawi in February, and WPV 3 report in Israel this March as this brings it very close to home that it is not over until it is over.
According to Shuaib: “the 37th ERC had offered us guidance on how to contain cVPV2 spread, which has unfortunately now spread more to affect 29 States of the federation and FCT, including states in the Southern zones of the country”.
“One of this guidance was the use of novel Oral Polio vaccine (nOPV2) which has been shown to be effective in halting the spread of cVPV2”.
“So far all 36 States and FCT have completed at least two rounds of nOPV2, 18 states have completed at least four rounds of nOPV2 Outbreak Response, 3 states have completed three rounds, while an additional 16 states have completed at least two rounds of nOPV2 Outbreak response”.
“Our surveillance system has remained robust despite the global COVID-19 pandemic that had a negative impact on the health system”.
“In 2020, our surveillance had picked and detected 22 cases of CDVPV2, in 2021, 1027 cases and in 2022, 11 cases have already been detected”.
“Although the figures may look scary, it is a demonstration that our surveillance system is effective, reliable and also means that if there is a Wild Polio Virus in circulation, it would have been detected”.
Speaking further, Shuaib said COVID-19 has impacted negatively not only on the economy, social lives, but also the immunization programme, where planned campaigns were suspended to address the pandemic.
He However said, it is heart-warming to announce that about 19,316, 980 Nigerians have been vaccinated with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine; 8,799,052 have taken the second dose; while 725,459 have taken the booster dose.
This, He said it is actually a far cry from the government’s plan to vaccinate 50 percent of the total population of the country by the end of March 2022.
“However, with the currently rolled out optimised SCALES Strategy and the Mass Vaccination Campaign (MVC) presently ongoing across the country, we are expecting a massive jump in the COVID-19 uptake throughout the country”.
“We now have vaccines, so we have now drilled down to microplanning starting from the ward level, to Local Government to State and then to National, having a bottom-up approach”.
Also in his Address, the Chairman of the Expert Review Committee on Polio and Routine Immunization, Prof Akin Osibogun admitted that the Committee is faced with the challenge of cVPV2 which has now been compounded by the recent report of detection of the wild poliovirus in Malawi.
Osibogun therefore said, given the ease of human travel, it has become imperative for the committee to bring the Nigerian Polio Eradication programme thus far.
“Nigeria has fought a long and hard battle with the wild poliovirus before its certification as wild poliovirus free country.
“With the recent wild Poliovirus type 1 in Malawi, it has become imperative for us to urgently put in place strategies to prevent importation of the virus”.
“The reconstitution of this Expert review committee is one of such strategies and the leadership of the NPHCDA must be commended for being proactive.
“The objective cut for this committee is essential to advise on strategies to prevent re-introduction of wild poliovirus in Nigeria and end the circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus in Nigeria through the strengthening of the immunization programme, AFP surveillance, community mobilization and advocacy, environmental monitoring and other appropriate strategies,” Osibogun said.
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