Northern Royal Fathers Meet In Kebbi Over Polio

Tue, 14/02/2012 - 1:19am | JAMIL GULMA and YAHYA SARKI

Traditional Rulers from the 19 Northern States of Nigeria are to meet in Kebbi State to find ways of eradicating Polio in the concerned States.

Speaking on the need for the meeting, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Ado Jimada Gana Muhammad, said that in 2011, 60 cases were recorded in Nigeria despite all efforts to eradicate the menace of the disease.

He compared Nigeria with India which, despite the high population of about 1.2 billion, has successfully eradicated Polio.

Dr Ado expressed dissatisfaction over the high maternal mortality rate in the country when compared to some smaller countries and noted that the International community was getting restless with Nigeria over the issue of polio.

He thanked the Kebbi State for its commitment to the eradication of polio in the State, most especially when it comes to paying the allowances of the workers.

In his respond, Governor Dakingari expressed appreciation for the role being played by both traditional and religious leaders in the fight against polio scourge.

Dakingari said the issue of polio by now was supposed to be a story if not for the carelessness of people. If they do what they are supposed to do by now there would be no case of polio by now. He renewed the call for total commitment from all in order to eradicate the polio menace in the Country.

He advised the stake holders on polio eradication to address the issue holistically by also providing basic amenities to people.

The Chairman Northern traditional leaders Committee on polio eradication, Emir of Dikwa, Alhaji Kyari Umar El-kanemi and the Emir of Argungu, the Chairman Task force on Polio eradication programme in Kebbi State has express their commitment to ensure that Nigeria joined the free polio countries as promised.

Nigeria Making Steady Progress In Health Care – Pate

Tue, 14/02/2012 - 1:05am | CHINYERE FRED-ADEBGULUBGE

Features

The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, in this interview with CHINYERE FRED-ADEGBULUGBE speaks on the Federal Government’s efforts to ensure effective health care delivery in Nigeria.

You are a member of the economic management team; what should we expect from the team, especially in the health sector?

In the health sector, we have the view that health is very important in the development of any nation; the productivity of any population depends on how healthy that population is. There is a lot of expenditure on health; some because of people going outside the country for medical tourism. We lose some of those revenues. If we improve our health systems, we can retain some of those revenues going to other countries and build our economy even further and save the lives of our mothers and children. For so long we have been told that child and maternal mortality is not as low as it should be, as compared to other countries, but we have also seen some improvements to solve those indices in recent years. Those improvements are not sufficient; we have to do even more to accelerate the pace of progress in terms of reducing the maternal and child mortality and morbidity. Read more

Chad: Why Polio Is So Hard to Eliminate

31 January 2012

analysis

Polio vaccination in Chad supported by Unicef. (Photo Courtesy Unicef)

Dakar — Poor-quality emergency immunization campaigns and low routine polio immunization coverage are helping the polio virus to spread in Chad, with 132 cases reported in 2011 - five times the number in 2010. More commitment is needed across the board, especially from local health authorities, to try to get immunizations right, say aid agencies.

The current outbreak in Chad has been ongoing since 2007, classifying Chad as a "re-established transmission zone" according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Polio is endemic in Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan - in other words, transmission of the disease in these places has never been broken.

While a dysfunctional health system is linked to poor routine immunization coverage, "the primary reason [for the upsurge] is operational," said Oliver Rosenbauer, spokesperson for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative at WHO in Geneva. "It is not to do with insecurity or lack of infrastructure ... The outbreak response has not been sufficient to stop it [the outbreak] ... They continue to miss too many children."