Borno dispels outbreak of polio in Maiduguri
The Borno State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Haruna Mshelia has dispelled an outbreak of polio virus in Maiduguri metropolis, following an alert by Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) Secretary last weekend.
Dispelling the outbreak on Monday, at a news conference at the Musa Usman Secretariat complex, Maiduguri, Dr. Mshelia said that no such virus has been detected in Borno state for the last 18 months.
His words: “The last time we had a non-wild polio virus in the environment (drainage) was in June, 2014; until last week when one is found in drainage of Abaganaram of Maiduguri metropolis.
“What this means is that there might be a person, resident or visitor, Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), who was shedding this ‘weakened virus,’ and a potential to spread and infect children, though much, much less than with Wild-Polio-Virus.”
He maintained that the discovery of this type of virus will not affect the certification of the country in 2017, even though appropriate response to the council secretary’s alert; are being taken by the Ministry of Health and Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCA).
He said the objective of the response was to massively search for the probable person(s) among the over 70, 000 households upstream from the site the virus was picked.
