Health Alert! World Health Organization Confirms Third Case Of Polio In Nigeria

Nigeria’s progress towards attaining a polio-free status may have suffered another setback as reports of third fresh infections is confirmed by the World Health Organization, WHO, in Monguno Local Government Area of Borno State.

According to Punch, the third case confirmed according to the WHO in a statement on Monday was discovered in a 2-year-old boy who had suffered paralysis in the Internally Displaced Persons’ Camp in the state.

Officials from Rotary International health agency and WHO experts who are presently immunizing kids in the Northeastern states warned that the viral infection may have spread to many states in the region.

Stephanie Mucznik, the spokesperson for Rotary International said on Monday that the latest case is closely linked to the two cases recorded in Borno state (read here) in August.

”The third child has been paralysed by wild polio virus type one in Borno state. It’s all linked to the same outbreak. Detection of new cases is not unexpected and can be anticipated, particularly as disease surveillance is being strengthened, including by conducting retrospective case searches,” Mucznik said.

”The three cases appear to come from the same strain of the disease circulating in the North East for years. Genetic sequencing of the isolated viruses suggests they are most closely linked to WPV1 last detected in Borno in 2011, indicating the strain has been circulating without detection since that time,” she added.

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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.

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