Barely three years after Nigeria was certified polio-free, the Kano state government disclosed that it had recorded no fewer than 106 cases of circulating vaccine drive polio virus type 2, cVDPV2 in 25 local government areas of the state.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyawa, made the disclosure at a press briefing on OBR1 and MNCH Week Integrated Campaigns, held at the Ministry of Health in Kano on Friday.
According to him, Kano has joined other 12 states that have so far recorded the new polio virus for the first since August 25, 2020, when Nigeria was certified polio-free by the World Health Organization (WHO).
He said the country had, therefore, developed End Game Strategy to stop the transmission of the cVDPV2, adding that to achieve the goal, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) introduced improved and genetically more stable vaccine called the novel type 2 oral polio vaccine, nOPV2, to respond to the outbreak.
Tsanyawa said the country would flag off the Outbreak Response (OBR) campaign from January 7 in all the 44 local government areas of the state.
He said the state government “is targeting 3.6 million children under-5 for the exercise with the Directly Observed Polio Vaccination (DOPV), adding that the house-house campaign would be flagged off on Sunday.
Tsanyawa also said the exercise would be launched along with the second round of 2021 Maternal Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) at Ungoggo local government area by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
The commissioner said the ministry was also targeting over 600,000 women and children under-5 for the MNCHW campaign.
“The MNCHW campaign, which is being integrated with the OBR1 by the ministry is a week-long event during with cost effective maternal and child health interventions such as vitamin A supplementation, de-worming, nutrition assessment, free ANC drugs like LLIN are distributed to children and pregnant women in all the more than 1,300 health facilities of the state as part of the continuous commitment of the state government in improving the maternal and child health indices in the state,” he said.
He revealed further that about N2.8 billion would be spent for the two campaign exercises and, therefore, called on parents, caregivers and pregnant women to use the opportunity, assuring that the vaccines were effective, safe and free of charge.
Tsanyawa urged the general public to come out enmasse for the exercise and commended Governor Ganduje “for his commitment in supporting the health and well-being of the people of Kano state.”
