Polio Plus Nigeria

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Dr. Tunji Funsho, chair of Rotary’s Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee, is recognized as New African Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Africans of 2020 for his work to rid the African region of the wild poliovirus.

He was the driving force behind the program to eradicate polio from its last African redoubt in Nigeria. After a long career as a Lagos-based cardiologist, Funsho was meant to be enjoying his retirement but with polio still rampant and causing paralysis in children across Nigeria, he spearheaded Rotary International’s effort to get millions of doses of the polio vaccine to children across the country. Read more

When Africa was declared free of poliovirus on August 25, 2020, it was only the second such feat after the continent managed to shake off smallpox four decades ago.

A lot of kudos for this went to Tunji Funsho, a Lagos-based cardiologist who chairs Rotary’s Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee, for eradicating polio in Africa’s most populous country.

He has worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization (WHO), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Unicef. Funsho led national immunization days to get millions of children vaccinated.

The virus was endemic there along with Pakistan and Afghanistan. But last summer marked four years without a case for Nigeria. Read more

Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee chairman, Dr. Tunji Funsho has been named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. “I’m honored to be recognized by TIME for my part in ensuring that no child in Africa will ever again be paralyzed by wild polio, a disease that once disabled 75,000 African children every single year,” – Dr. Tunji Funsho.

It’s not often an entire continent eradicates a disease, but on Aug. 25, 2020, that happened when Nigeria was declared polio-free, clearing the virus from its last redoubt in all of Africa. The person who did more than any other to drive polio to continent-wide extinction was Dr. Tunji Funsho, a former cardiologist and now the chair of Rotary International’s polio-eradication program in Nigeria. Read more

24th Oct – WORLD POLIO DAY

One Day | One Focus | Ending Polio.

Rotary’s 2020 World Polio Day Online Global Update program on 24 October hails this year’s historic achievement in polio eradication: Africa being declared free of the wild polio virus

Paralympic medalist and TV presenter Ade Adepitan, who co-hosts this year’s program, says that the eradication of polio in Africa was personal for him. “Since I was born in Nigeria, this achievement is close to my heart,” says Adepitan, a polio survivor who contracted the disease as a child. “I’ve been waiting for this day since I was young.”

He notes that, just a decade ago, three-quarters of all of the world’s polio cases caused by the wild virus were contracted in Africa. Now, more than a billion Africans are safe from the disease. “But we’re not done,” Adepitan cautions. “We’re in pursuit of an even greater triumph — a world without polio. And I can’t wait.”

Rotary Foundation Trustee Geeta Manek, who co-hosts the program with Adepitan, says that World Polio Day is an opportunity for Rotary members to be motivated to “continue this fight.”

She adds, “Rotarians around the world are working tirelessly to support the global effort to end polio.”

Story Written By:

Ryan Hyland

World Polio Day Global Update 2020

STATE OF POLIO IN NIGERIA

WE ARE THIS CLOSE TO END POLIO

COMPLIANCE LEVEL IN NIGERIA

NIGERIA POLIO UPDATE, 2020

No new cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) were reported in the past week. The total number of WPV1 cases for 2016 remains four and no cases have been reported in 2017. The most recent case (by date of onset) was reported in Monguno Local Government Area, Borno, with onset on 21 August 2016.
Nigeria continues to implement an emergency response to the detected WPV1 strain and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) strains affecting the country (last detected in 2016). The next round of sub-national immunization days is scheduled for March 2018.
Detection of polio cases in Nigeria underscores the risk posed by low-level undetected transmission. As part of the emergency response, subnational surveillance continues to be strengthened.

ABOUT POLIO PLUS NIGERIA

NNPPC MISSION

Polioplus Nigeria assists The Rotary Foundation (TRF) in achieving its objectives in polio eradication in accordance with the established policies and goals of the Trustees.

THE COMMITTEE:

Assist, obtains, and submits to TRF an adequate and enforceable vaccine hold-harmless document from the Ministry of Health.
Maintains contact with key governmental business and community leaders to advocate the eradication of polio and achievements of the objectives of EPI and to inform them of Rotary’s PolioPlus activities and goals.

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ROTARY INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT

Rotary International has reassured Nigerians (NNPPC) of its commitment to support the country in ending polio infection in Nigeria and secure World Health Organization (WHO) Polio-free certification by 2019.