BORNO Sets Sept Deadline For Polio Eradication

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno says his government has taken measures to eradicate polio from the state by September this year. He said this on Sunday during the inauguration of the 2013 Special Round of Polio Immunisation in Maiduguri.

Shettima said that the existence of the wild polio virus in Nigeria was a serious embarrassment.

“The year 2013 is a year for serious action against polio virus in Nigeria.It is an embarrassment that Nigeria is grouped among the only three countries still harbouring the virus in the world,” he said.

The governor lamented that even in Nigeria; the polio virus was restricted to the northern part of the country. “It is sad that even in Nigeria, polio is largely a Northern affair.It used to be restricted to the core northern states, until recently when a few cases occurred in Lagos and Abuja,” he noted.

Shettima called for concerted efforts to eradicate polio from all the affected states and the country as a whole and said that the Borno State Government was focusing its attention on 16 local government areas in the current anti-polio crusade.

“We are focusing on 16 of the 27 local government areas of the state, as these areas have been identified as high-risk polio areas. The affected areas are mostly border for communities who share boundaries with either neighboring states or countries,” he said.

Shettima expressed optimism that the state government would achieve its target of eradicating polio from the state this year.

The governor stressed that traditional rulers and chairmen of local government councils’ caretaker committees had been given special roles to play in the current crusade so as to ensure effective grassroots mobilisation for polio immunisation.

Also speaking, Dr Salma Kolo, the Commissioner of Health, said that more than one million children were expected to be immunised during the current campaign.