Vaccine Only Panacea To Polio – UNICEF

The United Nations Chil
dren Fund (UNICEF) says the only plausible solution to the debilitating Wild Polio Virus disease as the polio vaccine.
The fund’s Social Mobilisation Officer in Isa local government area of Sokoto state, Miss Rahila Shehu, said this in Isa town on Friday at a rally to commemorate the 2014 World Polio Day.
She said: “The oral polio vaccine is safe and effective in preventing the disease in children under five years of age.
“The vaccine is not containing anything that causes infertility or any other related health problem as being insinuated in some quarters.’’
Shehu also said that the fund had engaged women under its women volunteer community mobilisers to garner more support to the ongoing fight against polio.
Chairman of Isa Local Government Council, Alhaji Umar Wali, promised that the council government, traditional, religious leaders and other stakeholders would continue to support the campaign against polio.
“Very soon, Nigeria will be certified polio-free just like it was done for the Ebola Virus Disease,” he said.
This is achievable as only six cases of the polio virus were recorded this year in Kano and Yobe states, compared to the hundreds recorded in 2013.
“In Sokoto state, no new case of WPV was recorded in the last two years, so there will be light at the end of the tunnel soon in Nigeria,” he said.
The Health Educator in the area, Alhaji Kabiru Ibrahim, disclosed that efforts were on to sensitise the people to maintain sustainable environmental and personal hygiene.
“We are also enlightening them to drink only clean water and accept all government health-related programmes and policies,” he added.
A 30-year-old polio victim, Malam Aminu Aliyu, advised parents to allow their children to be immunised against polio and other child-killer diseases.
“I have been suffering from the polio disease since when I was eight years old and the disease is real,” Aliyu explained.
Only Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan are currently harbouring the wild polio virus disease across the globe, says UNICEF.

Tonye Nria-Dappa