Nigerian polio cases spike in '06
Pastor Dale Morgan
Nigerian polio cases spike in '06
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Reuters
Monday, February 12, 2007; 8:19 PM
ABUJA, Nigeria (Reuters) - The number of new polio cases in Nigeria
jumped by 36 percent to 1,111 last year but sustained immunization
should help cut incidence of the disease in 2007, a World Health
Organization official said on Monday.
Nigeria, which has been struggling to contain polio since some northern
states imposed a year-long vaccine ban in mid-2003, accounted for 56
percent of the world's new cases of polio last year, the official said.
"Much of the outbreak was at the beginning of the year and this was due
to high transmission in the latter part of 2005," said Pascal Mkanda,
the WHO's medical officer for immunization programs in Nigeria.
"But although the overall figure for 2006 was up, we saw a big decline
during the high transmission period from May to November," Mkanda told
Reuters.
A change in vaccination strategy in June 2006 had paid off, said Mkanda,
with authorities offering vaccines for a variety of diseases and
mosquito nets at fixed posts on "Immunization Plus" days instead of
going house-to-house offering only polio vaccines.
The policy had encouraged more families to bring their children forward
for immunization, helping cut polio transmission during the most
dangerous months of the year.
The bulk of polio cases last year were found in three of the northern
states that had banned the vaccine in 2003. They were Kano with 347
cases, Katsina with 179 and Jigawa with 133.
Some state governors and religious leaders in the predominantly Muslim
north alleged the vaccines were contaminated by Western powers to spread
sterility and HIV/AIDS among Muslims.
The ban caused a dramatic increase in polio infections and the virus
spread from northern Nigeria to many other countries, including some
where polio had been eradicated.