Maiduguri, 18 August 2016 - The Commissioner for Health, Dr Haruna Mshelia has applauded the World Health Organization (WHO) for deploying an international surveillance and outbreak response (OBR) review team to Borno State. The team which is headed by Dr Arshad Quddus from WHO Headquarters in Geneva plans to assess the sensitivity of the surveillance system in the state and the quality of the OBR conducted for the last circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Virus (cVDPV) case reported from the state in May, 2016.

In his opening remarks, Dr Mshelia described the assessment of surveillance in the state as an opportunity to possibly identify surveillance gaps but “most importantly to recommend to the state, the global best practices that could improve sensitivity and reduce the chances of missing cases”.

The Commissioner further added that “the resurgence of wild polio virus (WPV) in the state places Borno state in a difficult position but we are determined to change all that for the better. In your recommendations at the end of your mission, you should provide us with a roadmap on strategies to improve timely case detection and reporting especially in insecure areas”.

To familiarize the external surveillance review team with key Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) and related health performance indicators of the state, the Executive Secretary of the Borno State Primary HealthCare Development Agency (ED-BSPHCDA), Dr Sule Meleh, presented an overview of the PEI profile of the state. He observed that the trend of supplemental and routine immunization as well as surveillance performance of the state has been on the increase from January 2015 to July 2016.

Notwithstanding, Dr Maleh, lamented that about 11 of the 27 LGAs in the state, representing 41% of the total LGAs, do not conduct routine immunization (RI) due to extant insecurity. He however observed that “in respect of the LGAs conducting RI, Penta3 coverage increased from 73% to 84% from January 2015 to July 2016 while dropout rate was reduced from 13% to 10% within the same period”.

In his analysis of the polio vaccination  performance in the state, the ED described it as encouraging despite the fact that eight (8) LGAs, Bama, Dikwa, Kukawa, Monguno, Damboa, Ngala, Nganzai, and Kalabalge which were largely affected by the ongoing insurgency, have been missing several rounds of supplemental immunization activities for over four (4) years.

Earlier in his briefing, the ED informed the team that at the height of the insurgency, 248 primary healthcare centres (PHCs) were destroyed out of the total 604 PHCs in the state while 26 of the 38 General hospitals were equally destroyed.

According to Dr Meleh, “this unfortunate situation left the state with over two (2) million displaced persons creating a health emergency in the state”.

In his response, Dr Ashad Quddus, head of the external surveillance and OBR assessment team, said the objectives of the review include among others,  assessment of surveillance sensitivity, the prioritization of other diseases, the completeness of surveillance data, its analysis and use for action, knowledge and preparedness of investigation as well as  reporting of AFP and other diseases under the International Health Regulations 2005 protocol and the utilization of human and material resources for surveillance.

According to Dr Arshad, the team will visit major health facilities within the state capital, including PHCs during the period of their review and will also meet with the parents of the recent WPV cases.

The briefing which was chaired by the Commissioner for Health was attended by representatives of NPHCDA, WHO, UNICEF, CDC and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  

The external surveillance review is on-going in four (4) states: Borno, Kano, Kaduna and Sokoto, and the Federal Capital Territory.

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