ABUJA, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) on Tuesday said the country is on course to win the fight against polio in the shortest possible time.
At a summit in Abuja to review the routine immunization against polio in Nigeria, the agency said three years and counting without the wild poliovirus in the most populous African country was nothing short of a milestone.
"The toward a polio-free Nigeria has begun. However, there's a need for health workers to access insecure areas in Borno and some parts of the northeast region," said Faisal Shuaib, head of the NPHCDA.
Experts attending the two-day summit in Abuja are expected to review Nigeria's efforts toward polio eradication and identify gaps.
According to Shuaib, progress has been recorded on reaching inaccessible children, sustaining communication and social mobilization, strengthening routine immunization and vaccine management and accountability.
"Together, we can finish the job of flushing polio out of the country," the official said, further expressing the optimism that Nigeria will soon obtain a polio eradication certificate.
He said health officials in the country had worked tirelessly with a very strong surveillance system.
As recently as 2012, Nigeria had accounted for more than half of all polio cases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Nigeria's last polio case was recorded in August 2016, making it the last country in Africa to record wild poliovirus infections.
