Rotary Club’s District Chairperson on Campaign against Polio, Dr Khadijat Yusuf, has said that over 90 per cent of Nigeria’s population have come to accept and believe in the polio vaccine.

She made the claim during a polio awareness walk organised by Rotary Club Abuja District 9127, to mark the 2024 World Polio Day in Abuja.

She said the feat was achieved through relentless campaigns by stakeholders which needed to be sustained.

According to her, health workers experienced minor challenges getting parents to accept the vaccines in some rural communities due to social and cultural beliefs.

She said, “Over 90 per cent of our population have come to accept and believe in the polio vaccine. By implication, Nigeria achieves 90 per cent of its polio eradication campaign but it is not over until it is over .We will continue to create awareness and raise the needed funds for immunisation against the polio virus. We still have pockets of rejections to the polio vaccines from some communities in Nigeria. Two drops of the vaccine can decrease the risk of harbouring the virus in children.’’

Ms Yusuf said besides the awareness campaign, the event was also significant to celebrate Nigeria`s victory against the spread of polio disease.

She used the opportunity to appreciate other stakeholders that supported the campaign.

She stated, “Our traditional leaders, religious leaders and health workers have done a lot to achieve this polio free environment.’

Speaking, in the same vein, Governor, Rotary Club Abuja District 9127, Mike Nwanoshiri, said the event was organised to create awareness and remind Nigerians of the dangers of polio.

“We organise this awareness walk to create awareness that though Nigeria has been declared free of polio by the World Health Organisation, there are still elements of it around. By creating awareness to vaccinate our children people will know that polio is still around and needs to be completely eradicated. The campaign has been hugely successful because of the number of parents bringing out their children for vaccination,” he said.

The World Health Organisation in August 2020 declared Nigeria free of wild polio virus.

The declaration marked the end of a long, hard-fought battle against a virus that had paralysed children and devastated families.

However, WHO had said that with the elimination of the wild poliovirus, the country faces a new and evolving challenge of emergence of the circulating variant poliovirus type 2. According to experts, the variant strain, which can mutate from the oral polio vaccine in under-immunised communities, poses a serious threat to children.

This development had necessitated sustained polio eradication campaign and the need for parents to bring out their children for immunisation

(NAN)