Fresh polio cases raise doubts about eradication

Cases of polio reported in Nigeria this year have raised doubts about the country's ability to meet its target of eradicating the disease by the end of the year, a UNICEF official said on Saturday. A total of 124 cases were recorded in 14 states between January and July 2002, UNICEF's Caroline Atosile told a sensitisation workshop at Ota, near Lagos. Thirteen of the affected states were in northern Nigeria. A report by the inter-agency Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) on polio in Nigeria showed that Kano State was the worst affect with 39 cases, followed by Kaduna and Katsina with 23 and 14 respectively. In recent years, health officials involved in immunisation have reported resistance in parts of the predominantly Muslim north, where the exercise is viewed as part of a Western conspiracy to sterilise the populace and curb demographic growth. Officials engaged in EPI acknowledged the need to intensify communication and awareness programmes to induce behaviour change and acceptance of immunisation. Polio is a highly infectious viral disease to which children under five years are particularly vulnerable. About one in 200 cases results in irreversible paralysis, with five to 10 percent leading to fatalities. Nigeria and four other countries - Afghanistan, India, Niger and Pakistan - account for 85 percent of new polio cases, according to the World Health Organisation.