Please Read: Murder of Kano health workers: Setback to polio immunisation efforts

Gunmen, last Friday, dealt a deadly blow to efforts to immunise children against polio in Northern Nigeria. Nine female health workers on a routine polio immunisation exercise at Filin Kashu and Shargalle Health Centre, in Hayen Hotoro, in Kano metropolis, were gunned down by assassins riding in a tricycle. Two of the workers were killed in Filin Kashu, with three injured, while the other seven were killed at Shargalle Health Centre.
The murder of these health workers is not only a serious blow to their families and the nation, it is disastrous for the campaign against polio in Nigeria, and Northern Nigeria in particular.

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Polio, a vaccine-preventable disease that has become an embarrassment to Nigeria, is a wasting disease that leads to paralysis of limbs of affected persons. Efforts to eradicate the scourge from the world through massive, worlwide immunisation campaigns have been largely successful, with virtually all the countries in the world now free of the disease, except four. Nigeria and three other countries remain the last bastion of polio worldwide.
And the infection, in Nigeria, is most prevalent in the North. Reports, few years ago, indicated that the only West African country which reported a case of polio, had the infection contracted in Nigeria, thereby making our country an “exporter” of the infection. Since Nigeria found herself in this sorry position of a stronghold of polio, efforts have been geared up to ensure that nationwide immunisation campaigns are held regularly with health workers all over the country going far and wide to vaccinate young children. Also in Nigeria, the battle against polio has been most difficult in the North because of aversion to immunisation by many of the people.
This is largely due to misinformation on the polio vaccine, which made some Northerners to erroneously believe that it is an anti-Islam tool used by Western countries for child-spacing and sterilisation. This fallacy was reported to have been been repeated on a television channel in Kano, just before the attack on the health workers, although the state government quickly moved to counter it. It is sad that health workers, who work in the most difficult situations to ensure that they get to every village and immunise every child, are now targets of attacks by terrorists. The murder of these health workers is a serious drawback to the effort to kick polio out of Nigeria.
It is difficult enough grappling with the logistical challenges of getting health workers to visit every nook and cranny of the nation with vaccines. It is unacceptable that they will also now have to contend with the fear of gunmen targeting them for attacks. This is sure to discourage efforts to reach all Nigerian children, which could lead to resurgence of polio in the country. Also in Yobe, three North Korean doctors were reported killed in their rented apartment by assassins.
These, indeed, are worrisome developments, and the security agencies will need to work harder to secure health workers in the country. In the case of the North Korean doctors, it is strange that the doctors were housed in rented apartments in that volatile part of the country without any serious arrangement for their security by the police and the state government. This is clearly evident in the fact that policemen were reported not to have been on ground when the killers struck at midnight. As usual, President Goodluck Jonathan has commiserated with the families of the killed medical workers.
A statement by the president’s spokesperson, Dr. Reuben Abati, said the loss of the workers would not be in vain as the Federal Government would ensure that the mission to totally eradicate polio from Nigeria in which they were engaged is carried out to a logical conclusion. The president also promised enhanced security for medical workers in high-risk areas.
It is, however, not enough to just condole with families of these dead persons. It is much better to provide secure environment for all Nigerians. Now that health workers who have responsibility to care for the sick in the country have become a special target for killers in Northern Nigeria, and kidnappers in the Eastern part of the country, it is necessary that serious efforts are made to ensure their security.

- Wale Sokunbi [walesokunbi2010@yahoo.com]

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