Nigeria hits 3-year mark without polio

Nigeria, today, marked three years without a record of wild polio virus in the country.

Following the record, the country will submit its data to a regional committee of polio eradication for evaluation as soon as March 2020.

The committee will also confirm if countries in the region are polio free.

If the cases remain zero, then the Africa region will be certified polio free by June 2020.

There have been continued campaigns to reach more children and improve immunisation coverage since August 21, 2016 when polio was detected in a child in Mungonu local government of Borno.

Officer in charge of the World Health Organisation, Peter Clement, says the next six months towards evaluation of Nigeria’s documentation were the “most critical”.