Kwara govt detects 69 AFP cases in LG

Yekini Jimoh, Ilorin - 27.11.2007

KWARA State government has detected 69 cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) at Aderan in Kaiama Local Government Area of the state out of which a case of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) was established.

The Commissioner for Health, Hajia Ayinke Saka, disclosed this at a press conference on Immunisation Plus Days (IPDs) on Monday.

According to her, the victim was of the nomadic Fulani stock from Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State, adding that the detection was made possible through investigation of the stool samples of the child.

Hajia Saka said after the detection, the state Rapid Response Team comprising the ministry’s staff members and those of the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) and local government areas embarked on an intensive exercise to trace the history of the case and an immediate mop-up campaign was conducted.

She stressed that though the state had been polio-free since 2005, disease surveillance activities were aggressively ongoing routinely, adding that the 12 high-risk states had had six rounds of IPDs in the year whereas Kwara State had only one in January.