WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, has said that Nigeria on Wednesday marked three years free of endemic wild polio.
Moeti made this known on Wednesday during telenews conference, saying it shows that Africa had passed a milestone threshold of three years with no case of wild polio virus detected.
Moeti said that this three-year landmark sets in motion a comprehensive evaluation process by the Africa Regional Certification Commission to determine if the entire WHO African Region of 47 countries could be declared to have eradicated Wild Polio Virus.
That Africa’s last case of wild polio was recorded in Borno on Aug. 21, 2016.
Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that invades the nervous system.
It can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours; the virus is transmitted from person-to-person through ingestion of infected fecal matter
Following infection, the virus is shed intermittently in excrement for several weeks with little or no symptoms in majority of cases.
The initial symptoms of poliomyelitis include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, neck stiffness and pain in the limbs.
