Nigeria, Other African Countries Commit To Ending Polio – WHO - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Publisher (J.T)
August 27, 2021
The Regional Office has also presented a scorecard to track progress towards the eradication of the virus.
The African Region was certified free of wild poliovirus one year ago, after four years without a case.
However, outbreaks of a Vaccine-Derived PolioVirus cVDPV is spreading in African communities where too few children have received the polio vaccine.
cVDPV is a weakened strain of the virus that has changed over time and behaves more like the naturally occurring poliovirus.
WHO said, in a statement on Thursday, that the commitments came at the dedicated 71st meeting of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa.
Since 2018, 23 countries in the region have experienced outbreaks and more than half of the global 1071 cVDPV cases were recorded in Africa.
According to WHO, cases increased last year partly because of disruptions to polio vaccination campaigns caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.