The Nigerian areas recently freed from Boko Haram are now a busy work place for health workers who takes care of polio vaccination campaign. It is learned 25 million children will be vaccinated this year amid fear many cases of crippling disease may be found.
Last month two babies were reported to have been infected by polio virus and this is the first case in the country in more than two years. The world is now more alert as few months ago Africa was declared free of polio disease.
One of the members of Rotary Club cried after getting the news of polio case in Nigeria as he was associated with the End Polio Now drive of the club.
Currently polio persists only in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the world and a new case in Nigeria is like a major blow to global efforts to wipe out the disease.
The areas controlled by Boko Haram were deprived of such vaccines as the extremist group violently opposed the Western medicine.
The vaccination drive is going to extraordinary lengths and health workers are using military helicopters, terrain vehicles as well as tricycle taxis too. In past one week alone about 1.5 million children have been vaccinated.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), the new cases reveal wild polio virus has been circulating in the region since the uprising of Boko Haram in 2009.
Twenty years ago Nigeria was the epicenter of polio and it recorded around 1,000 cases a year. Global drive to wipe out the virus completely from the world started in 1988.
