The Bauchi state government on Monday denied report by some media on the re-emergence of polio cases in the state.
Executive Chairman of the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, denied the report while addressing journalists in his office.
Dr Mohammed explained that, the media report was a misrepresentation of his speech during the flag-off ceremony to mark the commencement of the first round of the state-wide outbreak response vaccination (OBR-1).
He said as part of the post-polio free certification activities, the World Health Organisation has directed every country to intensify surveillance activities, strengthen routine immunisation for children and continuous public health education.
He said the surveillance activities required collection of samples from children with cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) and from the environment at some designated sites.
“Through the robust surveillance system, Bauchi state was able to detect 38 cases of circulating vaccine-derived polio viruses out of the 315 samples collected from January to December 2021.
“The circulating vaccine-derived polio viruses which are presently referred to as the circulating mutant polio viruses (cMPV) normally results from mutation (change of form/characteristics) of the attenuated polio viruses used in the manufacturing of the polio vaccines.
“These are not wild polio viruses (WPV) that causes paralysis, but are used as indicators to measure the quality of immunisation services and disease surveillance.”
The executive chairman noted that, Bauchi state like other states of the federation remains free from wild polio viruses as the last case of wild polio virus detected in the state was in 2013, adding that all measures to prevent the recurrence of the virus as recommended by WHO were religiously followed in the state.
