The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, 25 August, that Africa is "a polio-free continent," according to the newspaper Le Monde. Four years after the last cases appeared in northeastern Nigeria, they are not even affected in the area devastated by the conflict against the jihadists of Boko Haram. "Thanks to the efforts of governments, health workers and the autonomous communities, more than 1.8 million children have been saved from the disease," the WHO said in a statement. In this regard, he stressed that this is an "important step" in the eradication of the disease worldwide.
The official announcement will be made by videoconference from 15:00 a.m. and will include, inter alia, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; WHO African Regional Director Matshidiso Moeti; Nigerian billionaire and philanthropist Aliko Dangote and the US Bill Gates. "This is a huge victory, a liberation! ", said Dr. Tunji Funsho of the Nigerian Polio Committee, of Rotary International. "It's been over 30 years since we launched this challenge. To say that I am happy is a euphemism. I'm happy," said the Nigerian doctor.
Poliomyelitis is a contagious infectious disease caused by the wild polio virus (WPV), particularly in children, which affects the spinal cord and causes irreversible paralysis. It spread around the world until a vaccine was discovered in the 1950s. The richest countries had fast access, but Asia and Africa remained important hotbeds of infection for a long time.
In 1988, for example, WHO recorded more than 350,000 cases worldwide, and in 1996 more than 70,000 cases in Africa alone. However, private funding allowed many cases to be turned around. Thus, currently only two countries are infected: Afghanistan with 29 cases and Pakistan with 58 others.
In Nigeria, in the early 2000s, the epicenter of the disease occurred in the northern Muslim region, specifically under the pressure of salafist circles, polio vaccination campaigns were paralyzed. A lot of work had to be done with traditional and religious leaders to convince people to vaccinate their children, because people have more confidence in the elderly than politicians.
However, in 2009, the outbreak of the conflict with Boko Haram ended up ruining hopes for the disease to fade away. In 2016, four new cases of poliomyelitis were recorded in the jihadist climbing area in the state of Borno. "At that time, about 400,000 children were out of the doctors' campaign for violence," Dr. Funsho said. Meanwhile, the state of security remains very unstable in the northeast of the city.
"But local authorities, humanitarian organizations and all partners have taken the bull from the antlers to find solutions that reach these children," said WHO State Coordinator Musa Idowu Audu Borno. Vaccination campaigns were carried out in the "partially accessible" areas, under the support of the Army and the self-defense militias. In areas fully controlled by jihadists, WHO and its members approached people on the roads or markets to establish a network of "psia informants" and "vigilantes" who warned of possible pests. "We had to build a pact of trust with these peoples, with free medical care, for example," Dr. Audu said at his daily press conference.
At present, 30,000 children cannot be reached. This would be an "insufficient" amount for the transmission of the epidemic, according to current scientific experts. Despite his "pride and joy", Dr. Audu has pointed out that in recent years some twenty doctors and volunteers have died in northeastern Nigeria. Africa must now ensure that no case of Pakistan or Afghanistan weakens that success and that sufficient numbers of its children are immune to ensure the continent’s total immunisation. Until that day, Dr. Funsho says he will always sleep "with an open eye."