The World Health Organisation (WHO) is on alert after a polio outbreak in Nigeria.
The body says three cases in children have been identified in the Borno region.
It says there is also a high risk of the virus spreading in the Lake Chad area.
The WHO says a polio response is ongoing, adding: "Immediate vaccination took place in mid-August, subsequent large-scale immunization to follow".
The country has declared the polio outbreak a national public health emergency.
The WHO says it has developed a humanitarian scale-up plan in Borno in response to the initial outbreak on August 19th.
The polio outbreak highlights the fragile health systems and the impact of conflict and insecurity while underscoring the risk of transmission throughout the Lake Chad
region, notably Chad (Lake Chad area), northern Cameroon, southern Niger and parts of the Central African Republic, the WHO says.
It is not unexpected to find polio transmission in the last stages of polio eradication.
This recent discovery does not discount the gains made in Nigeria or on the African continent, but rather underscores the importance of surveillance and of reaching every last child.
Source: WWWN, HWN Africa.
: 2016-09-06 18:58:03 | : 1537