The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) says there has been no recent history of polio in Nigeria since August 2016.
Dr Emmanuel Odu, the acting Executive Director, NPHCDA, who stated this while briefing newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, urged the public to report any case of child with fever and sudden weakness or paralysis of the limbs.
Odu also called for effective use of available Primary Health Care services to forestall any possible outbreak of the disease.
The acting executive secretary said the media briefing was to make clarifications on a report by some sections of the media on the suspected case of polio in Cross River state.
He said NPHCDA had deployed its technical team and representatives of its development partners to the suspected community in Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River, where a two-year old male child, suspected to have been infected was tested.
“Features found on this child were not consistent with those of poliomyelitis.
“A two year-old male child with a history of deformity, particularly a twisted right foot, which was observed at birth for which he was attended by a local bone-setter at the age of three weeks.
“Meanwhile, he had been administered with six doses of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) already, in his course of life.
“There was no recent history of fever as far as this particular instance was concerned.
“And so physical assessment or examination revealed that the sign that suggest complications of polio virus infection were not present in this child.’’
He urged the public to report cases of fever and sudden weakness or paralysis of the limbs in children.
He said the Federal Government and its development partners would continue to implement immunisation and other primary healthcare services throughout the country.
According to him, there is an active ongoing effort to quickly detect any child paralyzed by polio through effective nationwide surveillance system employed by the government and partners.
He said: “We urge Nigerians to continue to contribute to the survival and development of the children by presenting them for vaccination.
“We assure all Nigerians that our efforts have continued to yield results as we have not recorded any case of polio since August 2016.’’
NAN recalls that the recent suspected case of Polio was reported on Channels television on Tuesday Jan. 3.
The case was vehemently rejected by the Director-General of the Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Betta Edu.
NAN
Comments