Polio outbreak warning
2003-09-24 11:01
Gaborone - Polio is spreading across west Africa from Nigeria, the UN World Health Organisation warned on Tuesday.
The WHO regional officer responsible for certification of eradication of the crippling and potentially deadly disease, Sam Okiror, said polio in Africa's most populous nation "posed a great danger to whole west African region."
"Nigeria, that's where the challenge is. We have the type three virus which is fast spreading southwards," Okiror said at the start of a three-day conference of the African Regional Certification Commission (ARCC), a body dedicated to fighting polio.
"The virus which is coming from the northern parts of Nigeria is spreading fast across the country and has reached the southern parts around Lagos. The outbreak is still continuing and we have not managed to control it," he told the conference in Gaborone, attended by representatives from 14 states from southern, east and west Africa.
He said new cases of the virus imported from Nigeria had been identified in Ghana and Niger, adding that the situation was made worse by another outbreak of a new virus in Togo.
The move comes at a time when the disease is being brought under control in most African regions - especially in southern Africa, where the remaining trouble spots are Namibia and Mozambique.
"Most of the regional blocs have improved except for the west African region," said Okiror, adding that in countries such as Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Togo the disease remained endemic.
He also pointed out that Cameroon was also under threat.
"The disease in Nigeria has spread to 18 out of 37 states (provinces) and Kano (in the north) accounts for 40% of the registered cases reported in 2003," he said.
"The preliminary reports that we are getting for the report to be released in next few weeks suggest that we might be having more incidents of the outbreak than was previously thought," he added.
"The low immunisation, lack of support for governments' initiatives at community level and high level of movement of people across the (west African) region are major factors which militates against polio eradication," he said.
Poliomyelitis, to give it its full name, is an acute viral infection which mainly affects children and can be spread by simple physical contact.