Nigeria is making progress in its effort to eradicate polio from the country, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) country teams have said.

    Nigeria, they said, has reported a 50 percent decline in the number of polio cases, comprising 25 cases in nine states this year. This is an improvement over the 54 cases in 10 states recorded last year.

    A statement by UNICEF Communications Specialist, Geoffrey Njoku, said over 60 percent of the cases this year occurred in states with security challenges, especially Borno and Yobe, following limited access to children’s vaccination.

    Njoku said: “As outlined by the most recent report of the global Independent Monitoring Board for polio eradication, Nigeria’s polio programme has surged forward and is making progress. This is coupled with a substantive investment and efforts to improve routine immunisation framework and the “save One Million Lives” initiative, led by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

    “the number of unimmunised children...has declined in the past few months as a result of increased focus to improve routine services.