Dr Betta Edu, Director General of the Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency, CRSPHCDA stated this while flagging off the WHO organized training for Disease Surveillance and Notification Officers in the state.
“The last case of wild polio virus was detected in July 2014 and by 25th of September 2015 Nigeria was delisted from the List of polio endemic countries…Nigeria as a nation is on its way to been certified polio free in a few months and you know what the last minute in every race means, your very best is required “.
Poor knowledge among Disease Surveillance and Notification Officers (DSNOs) as a result of high staff turnover has been identified as a major reason for sub-optimal surveillance performance in Cross River.
The training is aimed at strengthening the Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance sub-system of the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR). This was said by WHO at the training workshop for Health workers in the Cross River State.
Flagging off the training workshop, Dr. Betta Edu specially thanked World Health Organization, Federal Government, State government and health workers for the commitment that led to the eradication of polio in Nigeria.
She also sadly recounted the lives of frontline health workers lost in the build up to this polio success, insisting that their names should be immortalised.
The DG said in order to enhance the capacity of DSNOs to perform their roles in disease surveillance, cascaded training on polio and acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance sub-systems of the IDSR should be encouraged.
She called for the routine continuation of Immunization stating the steps the agency has taken so far such as the creation of Cross Border Immunization services and establishment of Health posts in borders to strengthen surveillance and control the cross border transmission of diseases.
