By Haruna Gimba
The Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole said that the federal government is working towards complete eradication of Polio virus in the country by year 2017.
Speaking during a meeting with the Expert Review Committee (ERC) in Abuja, Professor Adewole stated that having another Polio outbreak would be very shameful to the country, and hopefully Nigeria would be declared Polio free by 2017.
He said: “With the support of President Muhammadu Buhari and international backing, we have no option than to succeed in the final eradication, because it would be a shame to us if we have one single outbreak. I described the Lassa outbreak as an embarrassment and it would become a shame if we have further outbreak of polio virus.”
It would be recalled that Nigeria was removed from the Polio virus endemic list in July 2015 by World Health Organisation (WHO), after no new case was recorded in 15 months.
If no new Polio virus case is recorded by 2017, Nigeria would be declared a Polio virus free nation.
