Conquering Polio's Last Frontier

This article follows the course of the polio eradication campaign in Nigeria from 1988 when the initiative was launched to present day efforts. Within a short period of its inception, the programme of vaccinations proved successful in the
Americas, Western Pacific, and Europe, all of whom were certified polio free. By 2006, only six endemic
countries remained - India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Niger and Nigeria - reducing the global disease burden
by over 99% since 1998.



According to the article, rumours that the oral polio vaccine (OPV) contained anti-fertility agents (and in some cases HIV), championed
by local religious leaders, began to spread in Nigeria in 2003. Following this, in October of that year, Nigeria's Kano State Governor
Ibrahim Shakarau suspended the vaccination campaign. The vaccine boycott lasted almost a year. Soon, twenty previously
polio-free countries were reinfected as a direct result of this ban.



According to Bruce Aylward, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director of the Polio Eradication Campaign, "We
are still dealing with the vestiges of this outbreak and the suspension of the polio vaccine in the Horn of
Africa - the world spent over half a billion dollars dealing with the epidemic spread of polio out of Nigeria."

In order to verify the safety of the vaccine, two scientific reports were commissioned - the first, from South
Africa, was rejected by Nigerian local leaders. The second was undertaken in Indonesia, following which local
leaders were satisfied and the vaccination campaigns reinstated. Today, despite full support from the federal government and local religious
leaders, many families remain non-compliant and mistrusting of the vaccine.



Hopes are still high that polio transmission in Nigeria will stop by the end of 2007. This was evidenced during
a national strike that left most of the country at a standstill, although polio rounds continued in full force. As
admirable as this dedication to the eradication campaign is, the article points out that it remains to be seen what NIgeria's efforts will yield.