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Bassey Enya Bassey, Alex Gasasira, Pamela Mitula, Umoh Utobong Frankson, Johnson Adekunle Adeniji. Surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria 2004-2009. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2011;9:32 Key words: Acute flaccid paralysis, Surveillance, Poliomyelitis, Nigeria Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/9/32/full Received: 27/05/2011 - Accepted: 04/07/2011 - Published: 22/07/2011 © Bassey Enya Bassey et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria 2004-2009
Bassey Enya Bassey1,&, Alex Gasasira1, Pamela Mitula1, Umoh Utobong Frankson2, Johnson Adekunle Adeniji3
1World Health Organization, UN HOUSE, Plot 617/618, Central Area District Garki, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria, 2Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, 3WHO National Polio Laboratory, Department of Virology, College Of Medicine, University Of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
&Corresponding author
Bassey Enya Bassey, World Health Organization, UN HOUSE, Plot 617/618, Central Area District Garki, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria
The last case of wild polio virus transmission occurred in Akwa Ibom state in October 2001; however, combination high routine immunization coverage with OPV, high quality AFP surveillance, mass immunization campaign in which two doses of potent oral polio vaccine is administered to eligible children and mop-up campaigns in areas with identified immunization or surveillance gaps has help the state in maintaining a free polio status for over ten years. This study was carried out to describe the characteristics of reported acute flaccid paralysis cases between 2004 and 2009, and to evaluate the performance of the acute flaccid paralysis surveillance system using indicators recommended by the World Health Organization.
A retrospective study was conducted among children, 0-15 years, by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Epidemiology unit of State Ministry of Health (SMOH), Uyo. The demographic characteristics and the results of isolation and identification of polio and other enteroviruses in stool samples sent to the WHO Polio Laboratory Ibadan for cases was analyzed.
A total of 521 cases of AFP (270 males and 251 females) aged 0 month to = 15 years were reported by the surveillance system between 2004 and 2009. Those below 5 years of age accounted for 82.5% of cases reported and investigated. Of the 521 cases investigated 512 (98.3%) received at least three doses of oral polio vaccine, while 9(1.7) never received any oral polio vaccine (zero-dose). In all 5.1% of the isolates were Sabin, 7.9% non polio enterovirus (NPEV) and 2.3% were classified by national expert committee as compatible with poliomyelitis. There was consistent and steady increase in three critical indicators; Non polio AFP rate in children <15 years from 4.5 to 6.4 per 100 000 population, proportion of AFP cases with 2 stool specimens collected within 14 days of onset of paralysis from 57% in 2005 to 91% in 2009 and proportion of Local Government Areas (Districts) meeting both core indicators from 23% in 2005 to 87% in 2009. The highest numbers of cases were seen in the months of March, May and September.
This study showed high levels of surveillance performance with some challenges in reverse the cold chain system, the continuation and sustained AFP case detection, prompt investigation and response, improvement in the reserve cold chain system would achieve optimal standards recommended by WHO and might provide a good model for the eradication of poliomyelitis.
