24th August, 2010
Kaduna State Government said on Monday that the state recorded zero wild polio incident in the last 14 months, according to its Ministry of Health.
Mrs. Charity Shekari, the Commissioner for Health, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna.
“We (state government) did not record a single case of polio in any of the 23 local government areas of the state between October 2009 and August 2010.
“This is worth celebrating as the state government is extremely happy that not a single case of the disease was reported in our local government areas within the period under review,” Shekari said.
The commissioner explained that the feat was achieved because of the state government’s effort toward eradicating what she described as “preventable communicable diseases.’’
She attributed the success achieved to the personal commitment of Gov. Patrick Yakowa, the technical staff and the support of the people, most especially traditional rulers, religious leaders, development partners and Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
Shekari emphasised: “This is a tremendous achievement for Kaduna State in our fight against polio, which shows that the state has been free from polio for 14 months consecutively.’’
The commissioner, however, recalled that the state recorded 16 cases of the Wild Polio last year as against the 49 cases recorded in 2008.
According to her, sub-national National Immunisaton Programme Days (NIPDs) special campaigns were marked in March, April and June to sustain the achievements recorded in the state.
Besides, Shekari said that proper public enlightenment campaigns through traditional institutions, faith based groups, the media and the civil society groups would be intensified to ensure complete success of the programme.
She added that 3.137 million children were vaccinated with polio vaccines in January as against 3.069 million children covered in November 2009, indicating that more children were reached in January than any of the previous exercises last year.