How Nigeria ’s Start-Stop Immunization Battle Is Winning the War to Eradicate Polio in Africa

The 50 million doses of polio vaccine stored in laboratory refrigerators all over Nigeria had a big weekend planned for them. If things had gone as intended, on Saturday morning, May 5, all of the little vials would have been trucked, flown, biked, walked around the all 36 states of the nation – to be delivered to every single one of the 49,882,036 known Nigerian children under 5 years old. But, as things developed, an outbreak of circulating virus in one region of the country upended those plans for routine immunization, replacing them for now with a crisis response in the affected area. The 50 million doses will instead remain on ice until some time late in June. That is the start-stop way polio surveillance and immunization works—indeed, is supposed to work. And that’s what has allowed Nigeria to go a full 20 months without a single case of paralytic polio. If the country can make it to three years, plus a few extra months as an epidemiological cushion, it will be certified polio-free, which will also mean that the entire continent of Africa is clear of the disease. That will leave Afghanistan and Pakistan as the only nations on Earth where polio is endemic. “Certification will be an achievement,” says Dr. Tunji Funsho, a former cardiologist who is now the chair of Rotary International’s Polio-Plus Committee in Nigeria. ”But we’re not in a hurry for that. We’re in a hurry to make sure no child is paralyzed.” Dr....
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime Nigeria onetime vaccines Source Type: news