Wild polio virus returns, 2 years after

THE Federal Ministry of Health has confirmed two fresh cases of wild polio virus.

It will be recalled that the country celebrated two years without a single case few weeks ago.

World Health Organisation (WHO), confirmed the cases, with the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, saying “this is a big setback for the nation on health issues.”

Adewole, while confirming the development to journalists in Abuja, on Thursday, said everything would 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 assured.

According to him, an emergency plan had been drawn out, adding that in the next 48 hours a team would be dispatched to the Borno State, where the incident was reported, in order to start immunisation.

“We will do three rounds of special immunisation campaigns to make sure that we contain the situation,” he said.

He added that “one of the cases is from Gwoza, which is actually close to the border, while the other 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 immunisation in the 2016 budget,” he said.