Nigeria News

On the sixth attempt, Mike Ajayi, teacher at Ajoke Nursery and Primary School, Ilorin, got through to one of the telephone numbers scrolled on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) station listed as open lines for parents of missed children to call during national polio immunization days. WHO Kwara State Coordinator, Dr. Omotosho Musa organized for a rapid response team to vaccinate Ajayi’s new born baby, as well as 19 of his neighbour’s children who were missed by the team.

Hamisu Ahmadu and Ahmadu Sani had no idea of a law making it compulsory for all children under five years to be vaccinated against polio when they came in their wheelchairs to the Katsina Central Market June 14. But they had a strong message - they didn't want others to become polio victims like them.

2004 was a period of uncertainty, but at the height of the controversy over the oral polio vaccine (OPV), the wife of the Governor of Yobe State, Hajia (Dr) Maryam Abba Bukar Ibrahim, braved the odds on March 2, by publicly supporting her husband and the deputy governor, declaring that the vaccine is safe. By January 2005, she appeared on national breakfast television to further affirm her support for polio eradication

Mallam Alifa Liman, a retired health worker, is becoming the anchor of a movement to get the Izalas of Bama Local Government Area (LGA), Borno State, to support polio eradication. His involvement started this February when the core trainer, Hajia Fanta Kachallah, explained the challenges of getting the Izalas to accept the oral polio vaccine (OPV). The Izalas or Jama’atu Bidi’a Wa’ikamatus Sunna (JIBWIS) are an influential Islamic group with a heavy presence in the state.

17 November 2005 - His may be a family of nine with three cripples – including himself and his wife, but Aminu Ahmed Tudun-Wada, Chairman, Polio Victims Trust Association (PVTA), is determined to ensure that polio cripples in Kano live respectably, and that no other child in Kano State is again disabled by the disease. At the Katsina Road secretariat of the 26-year old Physically Handicapped Association of Nigeria (PHAN) under which is PVTA (established in 1990) and the Para Soccer Team (since 1980), the cripples have a place to call home .

Abuja, 6 December 2005 -- In order to achieve scaling-up universal access to HIV prevention, care and treatment, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that countries adopt a policy of free access at the point of service delivery to HIV care and treatment, including antiretroviral therapy. The recommendation, according to the UN Agency is based on the best available evidence and experience in countries. It is also warranted as an element of the exceptional response needed to turn back the AIDS epidemic.

27 January 2006 -- Abdullahi Wamzan, a community leader, watched with satisfaction as Attahiru Mohammed Chidawa, a trained health worker, vaccinated the children of Unguwan Magaji Lagan, a Kamberi Settlement in the Magama local government area (LGA) of Niger State. It was the first time ever that the community was hosting such an exercise to boost immunity in hard to reach areas among people who may not otherwise access immunization and other health services.

In Kaduna State, Town Hall meetings are opening a new frontier for addressing community compliance in the polio eradication programme and ensuring community ownership of immunization. The meetings, which started in June 2005, have been conducted in the 15 very high risk local government areas (LGA). In Kaduna North LGA, data is showing a consistent drop in the number of non-compliance cases from 5,357 in the August 2005 round, to 1,312 in the March 2006 round.

24 July 2006 - Alhaji Sayyadi Abubakar Mahmood, the 75-year old Emir of Ringim, is leading by example in Jigawa State, monitoring immunization activities in over 60 villages and hamlets at personal cost, to ensure that all eligible children are given oral polio drops during each round of polio campaigns.

24 July 2006 -- The rough road connecting them speaks of the challenges both local government areas (LGA) have faced in the race to rid Benue State of the wild polio virus (WPV), but Agatu LGA appears to have put the worst behind her, with no reported case since 2003.