ABUJA/LONDON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Nigeria marked three years
free of endemic wild polio on Wednesday with health officials
saying the nation's progress in fighting the crippling viral
disease could result in the whole of Africa being declared
polio-free early next year.
The three-year milestone sets in motion a continent-wide
process to ensure that all 47 countries of the World Health
Organization's African region have eradicated the virus, health
officials said.
Africa's last case of wild polio was recorded in Nigeria's
Borno State in August 2016.
"We are confident that soon we will be trumpeting the
certification that countries have, once and for all, kicked
polio out of Africa," the WHO's regional director for Africa,
Matshidiso Moeti, told reporters in a telebriefing.
Polio is a viral infection that attacks the nervous system
and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours. Children
under five are the most vulnerable, but people can be fully
protected with preventative vaccines.
Wild polio remains endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but
case numbers worldwide have been reduced largely because of
intense national and regional immunisation for babies and
children.
Latest Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) figures
show that there have been a total of 65 cases of wild polio
worldwide so far in 2019 - 53 in Pakistan and 12 in Afghanistan.
The GPEI, which is backed by the WHO, Rotary International
and others, began its push to wipe out polio in 1988, when the
disease was endemic in 125 countries and was paralysing almost
1,000 children a day globally. Since then, there has been at
least a 99 percent reduction in cases.
At a briefing in Nigeria's capital Abuja, Clement Peter, the
WHO's country representative, said the next six months would be
"most critical" to whether Africa can be declared polio-free.
"Nigeria will submit its final country data for evaluation
in March 2020, provided there are no new wild polio cases,"
Peter said.
"If the data confirms zero cases, the entire WHO (Africa)
region could receive wild polio-free certification as soon as
mid-2020."