The Yobe State Government in Nigeria’s north-east says it has recorded four new cases of polio in three Local Government Areas (LGAs), three years after the state was declared polio-free.

The state government did not, however, say if the virus was the original poliovirus or the vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) which is a rare case that occurs in vaccinated individuals.

Nigeria was declared polio-free in 2020 by the World Health Organisation, but hundreds of cases of the vaccine-derived type have been reported since. Nigeria reported 1,028 cases of vaccine-derived polio in 2021 and a further 170 cases in 2022.

On Saturday, the Executive Secretary of the Yobe State Primary Healthcare Board, Babagana Kundi-Machina, spoke of the new cases while launching a campaign against the disease in Machina, a border LGA with Niger Republic, on Saturday.

“It is unfortunate that after three years of being certified polio-free, we have recorded a circulating poliovirus outbreak in Bursari, Machina, and Yusufari LGAs,” Mr Kundi-Machina said.

He said that the state government, in collaboration with its partners, had launched a state-wide outbreak response and vaccination exercise to address the situation.

The State Coordinator of WHO, Hamisu Alhassan, pledged the organisation’s support to the state toward containing the outbreak.

Mr Alhassan urged the public to adopt preventive measures, including personal and environmental hygiene, handwashing, and immunisation to boost immunity and promote good health, especially among women and children.

The Emir of Machina, Bashir Machinama, advised his people to cooperate with the government by accepting the vaccine.

Mr Machinama thanked the state government for its prompt response and pledged to sensitise his community to take relevant steps to contain the disease.

Millions of Nigerian children receive the polio vaccine annually. However, insecurity and vaccine hesitancy mean many children do not get vaccinated.

PREMIUM TIMES will provide more details of the new Yobe cases in subsequent reports.