No Wild Polio In Zamfara

The Zamfara State Government has said that there has been no reported case of the “wild polio virus” in the state since January.

The Permanent Secretary of Zamfara State Ministry of Health, Alhaji Salihu Anka, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gusau on Tuesday that the state had recorded tremendous success in the fight against polio.

He said that in 2008, Zamfara recorded 87 cases of polio, in 2009, the number reduced to 14 and in 2010, it recorded four cases.

“There has not been any reported case of wild polio in the past five months in the state,” he said.

Anka said that the success was achieved through public enlightenment and co-operation by all stakeholders.

“It is through enlightenment that we were able to make people realise that the vaccine is safe and used worldwide; it has nothing to do with family planning.’’

He said the people were responding to “immunisation exercises,” adding that more than 700,000 children had been immunised across the 14 local government areas since the beginning of the year.

He urged stakeholders to intensify efforts to ensure that the virus was eradicated from the state before the end of the year.