The health educator at the primary healthcare development agency of Kebbi State, Yusuf Umar Sauwa, revealed that a total of 25 cases of the polio variant have been identified across nine Local Government Areas of Kebbi State.
He made the disclosure during a one-day stakeholder engagement meeting held at the Polio Emergency Centre in Birnin Kebbi on Wednesday.
Presenting the polio variant cases discovered in a presentation to stakeholders and other donor agencies operating in the state, Umar Sauwa said: “Nine Local Government Areas of the state were reportedly affected.”
He explained that various strategies and approaches are being implemented to address the impacted regions, emphasizing efforts to halt disease transmission and enhance children’s immune systems.
He highlighted that the purpose of the meeting was to inform social mobilization officers about the importance of developing effective information dissemination methodologies for grassroots communication.
This, he emphasized, would actively involve the community, enabling them to contribute towards achieving established goals and objectives.
“We are trying to see how we can vaccinate children under five to boost their immunity and fill the gap in those children that are circulating variant polio.
“We are looking at occurrences of these variant viruses and vaccines; it’s a challenge to Kebbi State. We are trying to see how best we can stop the transmission of the disease,” he said.
He enumerated the impacted local government areas as Birnin Kebbi, Argungugie, Suru, Bagudo, Gwandu, Aliero, Fakai, and Danko Wasagu.
In attendance at the meeting were donor agencies such as Medicaid, WHO, UNICEF, Chigari Foundation, as well as representatives from religious groups including Islam and Christianity, journalists, and traditional rulers, among others.