Nigeria declared Polio-free with Rotary’s help – Nigerian doctors
Nigeria's new polio free status came as a result of work pushed by not only the international health organisations but through partnerships from organisations such as Rotary International.
To mark this achievement by Nigeria, the Rotary Club of Road Town held a special meeting last evening October 24, 2015 at Fort Burt Hotel and had as special guests members of the Nigerian Association of the Virgin Islands.
Following a short presentation on the issue of polio by acting President of the Rotary Club of Road Town, Sonia M. Webster, there was a recorded video message by Dr Mansur Mustapha Dada of Nigeria, a healthcare professional who has worked on the frontlines in Africa battling infectious diseases, including the dreaded Ebola virus.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease, which mainly affects young children. The virus is said to be transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (e.g. contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and can cause paralysis.
WHO said that initial symptoms of polio include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs. In a small proportion of cases, the disease causes paralysis, which is often permanent. It warned that there is no cure for polio. “It can only be prevented by immunisation.”
Cultural and religious challenges
During his brief video presentation, Dr Dada explained that the challenges to get people to take the medication were numerous and some of it stemmed from cultural or religious reasons. However, the fight got a major boost, he said, when it was decided to use religious and cultural leaders to be a part of the fight due to the heavy influence they have on the population.
“There are many reasons why people don’t comply and refuse to accept the polio immunisation campaign. There are religious reasons then there are other reasons like fear of whether the vaccine will have any long term effect on their health and other issues such as lack of transparency and accountability.”
New strategy addressed stumbling blocks
Dr Dada said that after about 15 years of the anti-polio drive in Nigeria, the country realised in 2012 that there were some “big stumbling blocks” that were actually stopping the country from making progress. He said that this led to a complete change of strategy and hence the use of religious and cultural means to get people to comply with the programmes.
He added that the religious and cultural persons were trained in such a way that whenever there are reports of non-compliance, they would sit down with families and get them to be compliant with the programme. He said that this happened in all levels of the country, down to the villages.
Dr Dada acknowledged the work of the international partners in the bolstering of the fight against polio in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with a population of about 170 million.
Issues of transparency and accountability
In addressing questions from the audience following Dr Dada’s video presentation, Dr Patrick outlined some of the intricacies of getting aid money to the far reaches of the country. He acknowledged the issue of transparency and accountability in playing a role in stymieing help from getting to where it is needed.
“There are so many logistic problems not only financial [accountability] problems. Imagine the weather. There is a place in Nigeria where it is so dry that if you go there you might have to put on a lot of hijab and close your nose to sand and dust to get into settlements that have about 12 households. It is very difficult to get there,” he outlined.
He said there are other parts of the country that get so much rain that it causes streams to become difficult to cross. “But those are minimum problems…they could be solved. The fundamental problem we have is the issue of non-compliance.”
He was thankful for the work of UNICEF, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Rotary International and said that these agencies have become familiar with Nigeria’s terrain and know how to get the resources into the areas most needed.
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5 Responses to “Nigeria declared Polio-free with Rotary’s help – Nigerian doctors”
There's enough help needed here in BVI to be sending help somewhere else. If my house needs fixing I'm going to fix it before fixing someone's in a country I know nothing about.
So they can say money going to cure polio on the moon just the same as these three places and truth is no one really knows.