Nigeria pressured to combat northern polio outbreak

GENEVA, May 25 (Reuters) World Health Organisation member states heaped pressure on Nigeria to combat a polio outbreak in its northern region that threatens global efforts to wipe out the crippling disease.

Nigeria has seen its polio infection rate triple this year, making it the only place in the world where the contagious virus continues to thrive. Five of its northern states account for nearly 70 percent of global polio cases.

At the WHO's annual assembly in Geneva, which proceeded on a markedly sombre note after the sudden death of director-general Lee Jong-wook yesterday, country after country called for urgent action to bring Nigerian polio under control.

Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the Eastern Mediterranean region, which includes much of the Middle East and North Africa, said many countries were ''extremely worried'' about importing the polio virus, which can cause life-long paralysis in children.

''This threat will remain as long as the situation remains as it is in northern Nigeria,'' it told a committee of WHO members, which Wednesday backed a resolution urging endemic countries to act on their commitments to eradicate the scourge.

Nigeria is one of four countries that has never managed to stamp out the virus, along with India, Afghanistan and Pakistan, though infections in the latter three countries have waned.

Local leaders in Nigeria's mostly Muslim north suspended vaccinations for about a year from mid-2003 over fears the drugs caused sterility or AIDS. As many as 40 percent of children in the region are still not getting the oral vaccine.

While not referring to Nigeria by name, Sudan told the WHO session a pause in vaccinations ''in some parts of Africa'' has triggered a large-scale re-emergence of the disease.

''The remaining disease pockets are representing a real threat to all that has been done so far'' in the nearly 20-year struggle to rid the world of polio, Sudan said in its remarks.

Austria, addressing the group on behalf of the European Union, said accelerating northern Nigerian polio was ''causing a significant risk for new and further international spread.'' Britain said the outbreak was ''the greatest challenge facing the (eradication) initiative''. Canada called it ''troubling'' and the United States said Nigeria's neighbours needed ''the highest level of immunisation coverage'' to reduce infection risks.

Nigerian Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo told the meeting that his government was concerned about polio in the country's northern region, and acknowledged an ''urgent need'' to stop it.

He said a new method of distributing polio vaccines, where the drugs are provided at a site also offering other services -- known as ''Immunisation Plus'' -- should protect more children.

''We are confident that the Immunisation Plus strategy will reach more children and thereby have a significant impact on the reduction of the wild polio virus transmission,'' Lambo said.

The WHO failed to reach its target of halting the spread of polio by the end of 2005. South Africa said at yesteday's session that a new goalpost may be needed to rally support.

Reuters DKS GC0939