From Idu Jude, Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory Administration has announced that it would embark on a one week integrated immunisation and surveillance programme, in readiness against white polio variant in Nigeria owing to persistent open defecation among citizens across major cities.
The acting Secretary FCT Primary Health Secretariat, Dr Yakub Mohammed, gave the indication over the weekend, while briefing journalists on the administration’s programme of activities lined up to sensitive and immunize children and pregnant women of childbearing age against the outbreak.
Mohammed stated that all the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, were battle ready against the imminent white polio outbreak with surveillance and sample collection of children and pregnant women.
He said that the polio cases may not totally go away from Nigeria since open defecation remains a big problem among Nigerians.
His words: “Nigeria failed to get it right with regards to clean environment. This variant is a more dangerous type, which mutates when a child with polio defecates in a vegetable farm, or stagnant water. The virus incubates and remains on the leaves and grows to a more dangerous type waiting for some other innocent ones to eat. And when other children eat the vegetable or contact the stagnant water, it spreads and that is what we are experiencing from two African countries right now. Feaces from such open defecation can be mixed with the food we eat as well as contaminate water and that is the root of spread.”
He said that as part of the one week programme vitamin A supplements would be given to over 1.7 million children as well as over 1.4 million pregnant women to prevent blindness within the FC. Other supplements include worm expellers.
To achieve the objective, he said that 267 primary healthcare facilities and 14 secondary healthcare facilities in the FCT as well as the public health staff would deploy the full strength of their staff for the outreach. They would visit schools, villages, market squares and churches to ensure that no eligible beneficiaries are left out.