The Africa Regional Certification Commission for the Eradication of Poliomyelitis (ARCC) of the World Health Organization (WHO) has began verification exercise of the document submitted by Nigeria on the eradication of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) in the country.
This was made known during a visit by the team on monday to the minister of state for health, Olorunnimbe Mamora.
According to a statement by the ministry’s spokesperson, Eunice Akro, Arlene King, the first reviewer of the team, said objectives of the visit is to conduct field visits with regards to polio eradication activities in some health facilities in selected states in the three zones in southern Nigeria during phase one and in the three zones in northern Nigeria during phase two.
King said another objective is to give recommendations and feedback for further improvement of the complete national documentation.
She explained that to support the country in the preparatory process, the Commission and its Secretariat will ensure that the national complete documentation prepared by the country meets the required standards of the ARCC.
She said the ARCC in its planned activities for 2019-2020, has scheduled Nigeria to prepare and present it during the meeting to take place in June 2020.
Mamora, expressing delight at the visit, pointed out that the Nigerian documentation to the ARCC on WPV eradication is near perfect and expressed confidence that in the course of the exercise to be embarked on by the team, it will be verified as such.
He pledged the necessary support, co-operation and logistics required from the government to the team to ensure a successful execution of the verification exercise.
He also commended the ARCC team for assistance rendered to Nigeria to facilitate her exit from the row of countries with the WPV.
He said, ‘the present Administration has accorded top priority to the task of polio eradication, and in the last three years, remarkable progress has been recorded in Nigeria in the reduction of the WPV, with appropriate surveillance put in place to sustain it’.
Executive Director, National Primary Health Care, Faisal Shuaib said that the ARCC team is here to identify with Nigerian states at the community level, to understand how the polio eradication program is working and to ensure that no child is paralyzed from the WPV.
He further said that at the end of the verification exercise the ARCC will be given the opportunity to preview and inform the Ministry of their findings and the advocacy on how well the program can be strengthened.
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