Date: 2015-10-16

A medical expert and the District Governor of Rotary International District 9125 covering 26 states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory, Dr. Mike Omotosho, has canvassed for more multifaceted campaigns on eradication of polio disease among children so as to ensure that Nigeria is total polio free country.He said that, Nigeria is not polio free yet until 2017.

Omotosho, who disclosed this in Ilorin recently on the status of polio eradication in Nigeria at a press conference, said that, this came against the back drop of the declaration by the Director General of World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Margaret Clan on 25th September, 2015 that Nigeria is no more on the list of Polio endemic countries after its 17 years of polio eradication efforts.

He explained that this declaration was against the reality of what is happening in Nigeria?.

According to him, "valuable lesson from Nigeria, is that containing polio requires a multifaceted campaign that goes beyond dispensing vaccines. One aspect is to continue to address head-on the rumours and myths about the vaccine that undermined the campaigns in earlier years."

"Finally, local volunteers, many who are Rotarians have succeeded in rebuilding trust on the polio vaccine. It is still needful to continue working in this direction. That way by the year 2017 when we have finally kicked polio out of Nigeria, we will beat our chest and say 'yes I also contributed to eradicating Polio from Nigeria.'?"

He also said,"We are close to eradicating polio, over 99 per cent of the children of the world have received polio vaccine. You can find polio only in two nations, not in the 125 countries when we started in 1988.Nigeria will soon be polio free."

He stressed,"Last year there were only about a thousand cases in the world - compared to the 350,000 cases a year when Rotary undertook this humanitarian mission. There are over two billion children who have received Rotary's polio vaccine - and they are now living a life without the fear of paralysis and death from polio."

Omotosho also recalled that, "Since the global initiative began more than 26 years ago, Rotary has contributed 0ver $1.4 billion and countless volunteer hours to the protection of more than two billion children in 122 countries. This has helped in reducing polio cases by 99.9 per cent worldwide."

He further noted that,"In 1985, polio eradication became Rotary's flagship project, with members donating time and money to help achieve the goal of reaching every child. And as the volunteer arm of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, polio eradication is Rotary's top philanthropic goal."

Omotosho said, "For as little as US 60 cents worth of vaccine, a child can be protected against this crippling disease for life. After an international investment of more than US$9 billion, and the successful engagement of over 200 countries and 20 million volunteers, polio could be the first human disease of the 21st century to be eradicated."