The World Health Organisation has said that polio disease would have been eradicated globally, but for the interruption of immunisation in the northern part of Nigeria in 2003.
It said as a result of this, the disease resurfaced and spread to 13 other African countries, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Indonesia.
WHO stated this in its 2007 Immunisation summary obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Friday.
Even though the global health organisation said it was facing new challenges resulting from anxieties on the safety of vaccines, more than 2.5 million deaths have so far been prevented yearly through immunisation.
It said this was through vaccinations in diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, yellow fever, rubella, and Hepatitis B.
However, WHO singled out some countries from which it was facing a lot of challenges.
It said, �In developing countries, getting routine vaccinations to the people who need them, lack of health care infrastructure, high cost of vaccines and delays from developed countries remain a key public health challenge.
�Smallpox has long been hailed as the ultimate vaccination success. It was declared eradicated in 1979, the only disease affecting humans to be eliminated deliberately.
�Polio has been eradicated in WHO�s American, European and Western Pacific Regions, while the number of countries where polio is deemed a serious public health problem has dropped from 125 in 1988 to only four – Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan – where the disease remains endemic.
�However, the 11-month hiatus in the immunisation campaign in Kano and other northern Nigerian states in August 2003 resulted in a resurgence of polio, which then spread to 13 other African countries, and from the Sudan to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and then on to Indonesia.�
WHO warned that there were serious concerns about vaccines safety, especially in developed countries, which had impeded the eradication of major diseases worldwide.
It said anxieties only �impede highly effective public health measure� and just like diseases, �prevention of anxieties about vaccines were better than cure.�
It added, �Despite these barriers, more than 2.5 million deaths a year are prevented in all age groups owing to vaccination against four diseases – diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTP), and measles.�
Reacting to WHO�s statement, a former President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Charles Gana, who spoke to our correspondent on the phone said it was unfortunate.
Gana said the WHO�s concern that Nigeria was responsible for the spread of polio to 13 African countries was self-inflicted stigma.
Meanwhile, the National Coordinator of the Nigeria Africa Stockpiles Programme of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Mr. Theodore Nwankwo, has raised the alarm over the harmful effect of expired and banned pesticides in the country.
Nwankwo warned that some expired pesticides brought into the country could have serious harmful consequences if not properly handled.
He told journalists in Owerri on Saturday that such expired or banned pesticides were responsible for the spread of cancer, kidney and liver malfunction, loss of weight at birth and other ailments in the country.
Nwankwo advocated a need to identify such banned and expired products and the adoption of measures to ensure a prevention of further stockpiling of the poisonous pesticides.
He also called on Nigerians to ensure that only people who were knowledgeable or trained handled the application of pesticides because of their harmful effects.
According to him, the NASP is meant to ensure the promotion of sound alternative pest control and to create awareness on the harmful effects of pesticides.
He called for a legislation to check further stockpiling of the offensive products and urged appropriate agencies of government to ensure the arrest and prosecution of those behind the importation of the products.
Nwankwo also urged state governments to establish committees with the responsibility of implementing the objectives of NASP.