President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday administered oral polio vaccines (OPV) on some children in his home, Daura, Katsina state.
The event, which took place at the residence of the president, was part of the campaign to wipe out the virus from the country by 2017.
According to NAN, the president did not make any comment during the exercise. He was assisted by Aminu Masari, governor of Katsina state; and Ahmad Qabasiyyu, permanent secretary at the Katsina state ministry of health.
Masari and emir of Daura, Umar Farouq, also administered the polio vaccines on some of the children.
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In remarks, Masari said that the state had not recorded a single case of polio infection in the past three years. He expressed the determination of his administration to intensify efforts towards eradicating the virus from the state by 2017.
The governor urged parents to continue presenting their children for the routine polio immunisation in their respective areas.
Ali Yuguday, coordinator of the World Health Oganisation (WHO), said the fight against polio was recording tremendous success globally.
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He disclosed that only 37 polio cases were so far reported in Afghanistan and Pakistan this year.
Yuguda urged parents to always open their children up for immunisation in order to wipe out the virus from the country by 2017.
He reiterated the readiness of WHO to continue supporting Nigeria to be polio-free by 2017.
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1 comments
The president obviously didn’t take a look at what happened when they pushed the polio vaccine in India in late 2011 after India was declared polio free. By the end of 2012 there were 47,500 cases of non polio acute flaccid paralysis-clinically indistinguishable from polio but more virulent. Today, cases number over 60,000. The number of NPAFP are consistent with the number of polio doses given.