Why Nigeria must redouble efforts against polio scourge – Aregbesola

The Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has reiterated the need for the government to boldly tackle the polio, a disease he described as “deadly and a bad news.”
Aregbesola stated this during the flag-off of this year’s polio vaccination exercise.
Aregbesola said polio is one of the deadly weapons employed against human beings by some invisible enemies call microbes.
He said there are three major forms of polio manifestation, namely: the Abortive Poliomyelitis, the Non-paralytic Poliomyelitis and the Paralytic Poliomyelitis.
He stated that it is with the paralytic form that government is most concerned, because it is the harmful form of the disease to human beings.
He lamented that polio’s most preferred target is the most vulnerable and valuable segment of the society which are the children, who the disease either kills or claims their limbs.
Aregbesola disclosed that there is no cause for worry as Osun is polio free despite that there are 119 cases of polio in the country, spread across 13 high-risk states.
The governor however expressed optimism that the disease though incurable is preventable.
He said: “But the good news is that, despite being incurable, polio can be prevented, with vaccination, with the possibility of wiping it out.
“Indeed, humanity was on the brink of stamping it out, but for the pockets of countries where the vaccination campaign against polio suffered major setbacks.
“Nigeria unhappily is one of these countries. This is why we have decided as a nation to redouble our efforts at the mass immunisation of our children, with a view to eradicating this disease.
“As we speak, there are 119 cases of polio in the country, spread across 13 high-risk states. But it is my joy to announce that the State of Osun has been polio-free and it is our responsibility to ensure that it remains so.”
He said government has introduced policies aimed at improving health system in the state, saying his administration has frontally tackled the issue of environmental sanitation, because filthy environment is a major facilitator of polio and many other dangerous diseases.
A 21-man Polio Task Force Committee in the state, headed by the governor, was inaugurated to help oversee the success of the campaign against poliomyelitis in the state.