Billionaire Philanthropists Bill Gates and Aliko Dangote have hailed the declaration of Nigeria and Africa by the World Health Organisation as being polio-free.
It is gathered that the global health body on Tuesday certified Nigeria and the rest of Africa polio-free.
The WHO Africa Regional Certification Commission said the major milestone was achieved four years after the last recorded cases of wild polio in the country.
In a tweet, Gates said that the remarkable achievement was a step closer to global polio eradication.
In his remarks, Africa’s richest man, Dangote, said the polio-free Africa was an indication that the fight to end polio globally is possible.
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The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, tweeted via his official Twitter account that the declaration filled him with optimism that a lot could be achieved through global efforts.
On his part, the Board Chair, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, felicitated with the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and his predecessors.
It could be recalled that the WHO had in September 2015 removed Nigeria from the Polio-Endemic countries list following its successful interruption of transmission of wild poliovirus for a year.
With the WHO declaration of successful eradication of polio in Nigeria, the devastating disease remains endemic in only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, globally.
Polio is a contagious viral illness that in its most severe form causes nerve injury leading to irreversible paralysis and sometimes death.
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