By John Ikani
The Adamawa State Government has confirmed the re-emergence and detection of circulating Vaccine Derived Poliovirus, (VDPV) type 2 case in the state.
The development comes a year after Nigeria was declared polio-free by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Prof. Abdullahi Isa, the state Commissioner for Health and Human Services, disclosed this during the official flag-off of the first Round Outbreak Response immunisation on Saturday in Yola.
“One case of Circulating Vaccine Derived Poliovirus type 2 has been detected in the state. The situation is posing a great danger of polio virus outbreak in the state.
“The resurface of the Poliovirus type 2 necessitated the immediate flag off of the first Round Outbreak Response for Oral Polio Vaccine,” Isa said.
While describing the VDPV as “a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) that has changed over time”, Isa added that “it behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus.”
According to him, the state government with the support from the developmental partners, WHO and UNICEF, among others, had trained about 800 health personnel to carry out the routine immunisation for polio vaccination.
He said about one million children below five years were targeted in the outbreak response vaccination across the state.
