The Minister for Health, Prof C. Onyebuchi Chukwu, has directed Nigerians visiting India to take Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) six weeks prior to their arrival in India.
A press statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health, Alhaji Isiaka Yusuf, quoted the minister as saying that it was an advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to
polio endemic countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Israel, Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Chukwu said the advice was binding on all members of the World Health Assembly, “of which Nigeria is a member.”
He noted that the federal government, through the National primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), made tremendous progress in 2013 towards achieving interruption of polio virus transmission by end of 2014.
He added that the number of wild polio virus cases in 2013 reduced immensely by 56 per cent.
The minister further said to sustain the encouraging achievement, the federal government would continue to enhance its surveillance on social health education, information and communication activities to ensure complete eradication of “this deadly disease in the country.”
