Nigeria records two new polio cases

Nigeria has for the first time gone eleven months without recording any incidence of type three Wild Polio Virus (WPV3), even as she continues to report type one WPV (WPV1) with two new cases last week.

According to the latest edition of the Weekly Polio Update published yesterday by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), two new WPV cases were reported last week from two previously infected districts, one from Bauchi Local Council in Bauchi State and one from Bichi Council in Kano State. The total number of WPV cases for 2013 is now 49 (all WPV1s). The most recent WPV1 case in the country, from Kano, had onset of paralysis on September 10, 2013.

The GPEI report noted that no WPV3 has been detected in Nigeria since November 2012 and no new Circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Virus type two (cVDPV2) cases were reported in the past week.