Nigerian authorities on Friday reported a sharp rise in the number of polio cases in Africa’s most populous country over recent months, despite a government immunisation drive.
A total of 784 cases of the disease were registered in 17 states at the end of July, the National Programme on Immunisation said.
In June the figures were 501 cases in 15 states, compared to 244 cases in 18 states for the same period in 2005, it said in a statement.
The news came just as the agency was preparing to launch another phase of its immunisation drive for children.
From June 29 to July 3, Nigerian health officials in collaboration with United Nations health agencies launched an ambitious five-day Polio Plus immunisation campaign of 10-million children in northern Nigeria aimed at eradicating the deadly disease from the country by the end of 2006.
Nigeria has the largest number of polio cases in the world, accounting for 80% of cases worldwide and 98% in Africa, according to a UN World Health Organisation (WHO) report.
Some northern states halted the polio immunisation drive for 11 months in 2004 and 2005 when radical Muslim clerics claimed the polio vaccine was laced with substances that could render girls infertile as part of United States-led Western plot to depopulate Africa.
Despite the resumption of the campaign two years ago after the claim was refuted by scientific tests, Nigeria remains the epicentre of the transmission of poliovirus in the world as contained in the WHO report.
According to the WHO report, Nigeria has reported a high poliovirus transmission in the northern area of the country this year with the north-west accounting for 90% of all cases in the country. — Sapa-AFP