(VOVworld) – The World Health Organisation launched a program last week to vaccinate 116 million children across west and central Africa in a drive to eradicate polio in Africa.

Photo: AFP

The 4-day program, which concluded today, saw all children under the age of five in 13 countries immunised against polio. 190,000 vaccinators spent 12 hours a day and used all means of transportation including walking in temperatures above 40DC to reach every household in urban and rural area across the region. Polio is still a concern in the countries around Lake Chad where the WHO recorded four cases of polio last year.

Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said polio was an epidemic in Africa  20 years ago and every year more than 75,000 children were paralysed for life by the disease. Efforts by governments, society, and families to rid Africa of polio have made progress. The WHO took Nigeria off the list of polio-endemic countries in September, 2015. But health experts have worried about remote areas. Poliovirus spreads quickly in unhygienic condition and polluted water.

Hamid Jafari, Director of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, warned that poliovirus should be closely monitored, but the monitoring systems of some African countries are unable to detect the disease. He called on governments, partners, communities, religious leaders, health workers, and volunteers to overcome all difficulties and defeat polio in Africa.

Hope is strong that the polio eradication program conducted by the African Union over the past 20 years, with international support, will eradicate polio from Africa.