The Nigerian government has validated the position of the Cross River State government in the suspected case of polio in the state in south-south Nigeria.
The Incident Manager of the National Polio Emergency Operation Centre, Dr. Usman Adamu, made the clarification on Wednesday in a telephone interview with Channels Television.
Dr Adamu confirmed that the suspected polio case had been clinically diagnosed to be a deformity known as club foot.
He said there was no need to take sample from the child as the first polio diagnosis process revealed that the child’s leg was not flaccid, but a deformity that happened soon after the child was born.
The incident manager urged the people of the state not to panic as no polio case has been recorded.
Against Her Belief
Earlier, the Director General of Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Betta Edu, visited Ekpene Eki community in Odukpani Local Government Area of the state to inspect the case of Anthony Eyibio with a suspected case of polio.
Anthony’s mother, who has six other children speaking in vernacular pleaded with the Federal Government to assist her family bring back hope to Anthony who has been in the condition almost since he was born.
She admitted not to have visited any health center for Antenatal throughout the period of Anthony’s pregnancy nor had taken him for any vaccination which according to her, is against her belief.
As at Wednesday morning, the DG confirmed to Channels Television that, the World Health Organization team had already arrived the community and Anthony’s sample had been taken and will be immediately sent to the lab for testing and confirmation if his condition is as a result of polio or any other condition.
Dr. Edu was insisted that Cross River State was polio free.
“I will still insist that, Cross River State is Polio free. A lot has been done and a lot is still being done. Yesterday, I was was Ekpene Eki in person and we saw the child in question. We examined that child and that child,what we saw clinically has some form of Clocked foot.
“We have taken samples from that child and the samples as we speak has arrived Ibadan. The samples collected from the child would be looked at and the resumed sent back within a week. We do not have any case,any confirmed case of polio in the State,” he said.
The Federal Government had dispatched a team of experts from the Health Ministry and the Nigerian Centre For Disease Control to investigate the suspected polio case.
The case, involving an infant, was detected in Ekpene-Eki community of Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State and reported on Monday.
Anthony’s aunt had told Channels Television that it was noticed when he was about three months old.
She said that since the discovery of the symptoms in the child, he had remained without proper medical attention, as the only health facility in the area seemed to be unable to handle the case.
