NIGERIA: UNICEF raises concern over new cases of polio found in several northern states

Record ID: 235345

  • Title: NIGERIA: UNICEF raises concern over new cases of polio found in several northern states
  • Date: 4th November 2011
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF CHILDREN IN CLASS
  • Embargoed: 19th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria, Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: International Relations,Health
  • Reuters ID: LVADBWVKUYA96OH9N7D60MV2CZ60
  • Story Text: The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has said it is concerned over a fresh outbreak of polio in Nigeria after new cases were recently detected in several northern states.
    UNICEF representatives who were leading the launch of the Polio Free Torch Campaign in Kano said there where about 38 new cases of polio reported in Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara States.
    Polio spreads in areas with poor sanitation, attacks the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection. Children under five are the most vulnerable.
    On Thursday (November 03) a northern Angolan province near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo declared a state of emergency after a 14-month-old boy who was not vaccinated tested positive for polio along with nine other children.
    Nigeria pledged in September to ensure the eradication of Polio from the country within two years and launched a Polio Free Torch Campaign to mobilize support for the "last lap" of polio elimination efforts in the country.
    UNICEF said that the resurgence of the disease in northern states of Africa's most populous nation were "worrying" and that the fight against polio was far from over.
    "We have to recall that Kano which used to be the epicentre of polio outbreak, was indeed free of polio for 16 months, from January 2009 to October 2010, before it detected only one case in 2010, but the picture this year is very worrying," said Edele Thebaud, UNICEF chief field officer in Kano.
    Polio is endemic in just four countries -- India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan -- and there has been a 99 percent reduction in cases since 1988, when the World Health Organisation and its partners formed the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to fight it.
    At that time, polio was endemic in 125 countries and caused paralysis in nearly 1,000 children every day.
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