‘Nigeria will be polio-free in six months’

By : Nkechi Onyedika-Ugoeze, Abuja

Date: 26 April 2019 4:50am WAT

Gavi Champion for Immunisation in Africa, Dr. Awele Elumelu (left); Chief Executive Officer, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib; and Director, NPHCDA, Dr. Dorothy Nwodo, during the African Vaccination Week in Abuja…yesterday. PHOTO: LUCY LADIDI ATEKO

Executive director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, has said that due to the innovative approach deployed to routine immunisation, Nigeria will be declared polio-free in the next six months.

“We are now at a point where we are just some six months away from being declared polio-free in Nigeria,” he stated.

Addressing a press conference yesterday to commemorate the 2019 African Vaccination Week (AVW), Shuaib commended the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Ministry of Health in the progress made in immunisation coverage, noting the increase of routine immunisation coverage rates from 48 per cent in 2015 to 57 per cent in 2018.

According to him, for the first time, Nigeria is experiencing a consistent and compelling improvement in the number of kids reached with life-saving vaccines.

“We have surpassed all historic expectations in immunisations,” he added.
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