PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Polio battle faces another setback in Nigeria
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The global battle to eradicate polio may suffer another setback in Nigeria, if the threat by a local community in northern Jigawa state to boycott polio immunisation exercise is carried out.
The Garbagal village in Guri local government area of the state has threatened not to participate in any more immunisation exercise unless the government completes a health clinic abandoned there for the past 15 years.
According to the private Guardian newspaper on Monday, the community issued the threat through village spokesman Garba Jarma Garbagal, who said the clinic that would have benefitted over 4,000 people from 10 communities was abandoned at the foundation level.
“All the other villages have to joined in boycotting all future immunisations including polio. Our decision is predicated on the fact that immunisation is being carried out to prevent selected diseases, but the most important health needs of the people have been abandon by the government,” he said.
The threat came as a new case of Wild Polio Virus type 1 (WPV1) was discovered in the state, bringing the total number of cases for 2011 to 45.
The case discovered in Jigawa is the most recent in the country.
Past cases of polio immunisation boycott in some of the northern states, over unfounded fears that the exercise could lead to infertility later in life, have been blamed for the delay in eradicating the disease in Nigeria.
PANA reports that Nigeria has stepped up its capacity to eradicate the crippling disease with the establishment of a Presidential Task Force by President Goodluck Jonathan.
President Jonathan, who is expected to formally inaugurate the task force this week, has mandated the Ministry of Health to work towards eradicating the disease.
-0- PANA SEG 5Dec2011
The Garbagal village in Guri local government area of the state has threatened not to participate in any more immunisation exercise unless the government completes a health clinic abandoned there for the past 15 years.
According to the private Guardian newspaper on Monday, the community issued the threat through village spokesman Garba Jarma Garbagal, who said the clinic that would have benefitted over 4,000 people from 10 communities was abandoned at the foundation level.
“All the other villages have to joined in boycotting all future immunisations including polio. Our decision is predicated on the fact that immunisation is being carried out to prevent selected diseases, but the most important health needs of the people have been abandon by the government,” he said.
The threat came as a new case of Wild Polio Virus type 1 (WPV1) was discovered in the state, bringing the total number of cases for 2011 to 45.
The case discovered in Jigawa is the most recent in the country.
Past cases of polio immunisation boycott in some of the northern states, over unfounded fears that the exercise could lead to infertility later in life, have been blamed for the delay in eradicating the disease in Nigeria.
PANA reports that Nigeria has stepped up its capacity to eradicate the crippling disease with the establishment of a Presidential Task Force by President Goodluck Jonathan.
President Jonathan, who is expected to formally inaugurate the task force this week, has mandated the Ministry of Health to work towards eradicating the disease.
-0- PANA SEG 5Dec2011
