The World Health Organisation Coordinator in Cross River, Dr Thompson Igbu, says Nigeria would be polio free by August 2018.
Dr Igbu made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria on the sidelines of a workshop on integrated disease surveillance and response on Wednesday in Calabar.
“Nigeria would have been 24 months free of indigenous polio virus in the country, if no case was reported.
“Nigeria is doing very well in the fight against poliomyelitis in the country.” The expert noted that polio reporting system was very strong in Nigeria and the last polio case that was recorded in the country was in August 2016.
According to him, WHO had trained community personnel that quickly report any condition that looked like polio or any of the diseases on Federal Government watch list to the appropriate bodies.
“We have trained several community members called community informants, whom once they see anything that looks like polio, they quickly report to the nearest health centre.
“The health centre reports to the local government, the local government reports to the state and the state to the national level.
“I am confident that we have done well in trying to eradicate polio,’’ he said.
He however underscored the need to improve access to information to focal persons who are stationed at different health facilities.
“This would help the federal government and WHO know the rate of frequency of a particular disease in a community and prevent its spread.”
