By Asmau Ahmad
The Ministers of Health from the member states of the Lake Chad Basin have declared the recent polio outbreak in Nigeria a public health emergency.
The declaration is contained in a statement issued by, the Director, Media and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Health, Mrs. Boade Akinola in Abuja.
Mrs. Akinola said the ministers made the declaration at the 66th session of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Committee for the African Region in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
She said the ministers of Health from the Lake Chad Basin Countries, which include Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Central Africa Republic and Cameroon, all endorsed the declaration document.
The declaration requests Nigeria and other member states to fully implement coordinated outbreak response in order to quickly prevent the spread of the disease to other countries.
“The member states expressed the need to extend support to the response by including political advocacy and community engagement at all levels. This will lead to a successful coordination and implementation of harmonised polio vaccination activities across the countries of the Lake Chad sub-region,” Akinola said.
She said to address the security challenges in the sub-region, the member states sought the support of the multi-national military task force to provide adequate security and facilitate safety for the vaccination process.
The ministers urged member states to provide additional political, financial and technical support for the regional emergency response.
The member states also called on WHO Regional Director and other partners to continue with technical and financial support to accelerate eradication of poliomyelitis in the region.
It would be recall that Health Reporters had reported that the Federal Ministry of Health, on August 11, confirmed the discovery of two cases of the Wild Polio Virus in Gwoza and Jere local government areas of Borno state.
