While the health authorities in Nigeria and the world were readying themselves to celebrate the eradication of Polio in Nigeria, the disease resurfaced making it imperative for everyone concerned to return to the drawing board. The report that the wild poliovirus type one (WPV1) has been detected from Borno state emphasises the need for persistent vigilance in such matters. According to the report, the Virus was isolated from two local government areas (LGA) of Borno; in Gwoza LGAs, in a child with Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFPonset of paralysis on July 13) and close healthy contacts of that child; and in Jere from a close healthy contact of a child who had developed AFP symptoms on July 6. Both cases were reported by advanced notification and was promptly reflected in the official data.Records available to LEADERSHIP indicate that this is the first WPV1 detected in Nigeria since July 2014. But it is also pertinent to note that the Genetic sequencing of the isolated viruses suggest they are most closely linked to WPV1 last detected in Borno in 2011, indicating that the strain has been circulating without detection since that time. This, in our view, is an indictment on the health authorities in that area who had relapsed into complacency in the now mistaken belief or is it hope that the virus is done with us.However, we commend the measures being put in place to contain the spread of the virus. Already an outbreak response plan has being finalised, consisting of three large-scale supplementary immunisation activities (SIAs) with bivalent oral polio vaccine (OPV), the first one beginning within two weeks and subsequent rounds being conducted at short intervals (of between two to three weeks),When the country began to expect that in 2017 she will be removed from the polio endemic countries list, many a stakeholder thought that the party started too early because of the nature of the disease as well as our penchant for unserious attitude to such issues. When the deplorable condition in the camps of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) began to engage the attention of not only the media but also the international humanitarian agencies, not a few thought that we were going to have a major health challenge soon.Therefore, it is not surprising that it is from Borno, the centre of the insurgency that created the IDPs problem that the virus was, again, detected. What this means is that everyone concerned must be involved in a collaborative manner to fight the scourge. The federal Ministry of Health must immediately pull resources together with the state government to do the needful to ensure that the virus is eradicated completely this time round. It may not be yet an emergency situation but the authorities, nonetheless, must approach it with all the determined effort that is required.In our view, much as the international community, in particular the World Health Organisation (WHO) will be involved, it is to be expected that the health authorities in Nigeria will lead the onslaught. The communities in the affected and adjoining areas must be sufficiently educated on the implication of the recent outbreak.In our opinion, we found ourselves in this ugly situation mostly because the attention of the government had been focused on winning the war against insurgency, which is okay. But, sadly, scant attention is being paid to the humanitarian condition of the people in the war zones. When aid to those unfortunate people became politicised, in some cases, commercialised and non-governmental activities in the area became an industry, we knew there was going to be a problem.But it is not too late to begin a review and a re-evaluation of the entire healthcare delivery process in the polio prone areas. The time is now to see the setback as an opportunity to get it right once and for all.
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