The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, said the Federal Government of Nigeria has immunized more than 31 million children as part of efforts to stop transmission of wild polio virus in the country.
Professor Adewole disclosed this during the commissioning of the new Modular Polio Laboratory at the Department of Virology, University of Ibadan, Oyo state.
Newsmen reports that the laboratory was purchased with a grant from the United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) to support polio eradication activities in Nigeria.
The minister said that discovery of two wild polio virus in three Local Government Areas in Borno state has resulted in the commencement of a robust outreach response to curtail the outbreak of polio in the country.
According to him, the federal government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the country interrupt the transmission of polio once again.
He said: “As of today we have conducted four outbreak response rounds in addition to immediate response; the first response resulted in 800,000 children immunised in the first round. The first, second and third rounds covered 18 northern states with the exception of Kwara and Kogi states.
“The third round which ended in October resulted in 31,422,237 children being immunised; we are currently compiling the result of the fourth round which ended on November 15. We are on track to commence the fifth round by December 5, and our ultimate aim is to reach over 41 million children with each round.”
Adewole said declaring the country polio-free earlier in the year was rather premature due to the problems of insurgence in the North-Eastern states.
According to him, the outbreak was not a failure of the polio eradication campaign but as a wake-up call to see that polio transmission is successfully interrupted in the country.
The U.S. Consul General, John Bray, said that the new facility, which cost an estimated $400,000 was part of the U.S. government effort to improve health and well being of Nigerians.
