By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington --The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that participation in a massive polio immunization campaign in West Africa has been "strong," despite the refusal by two northern Nigerian states to allow inoculations.

WHO spokesperson Melissa Corkum said February 27 that final data won't be available for several more weeks, but she anticipates that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has come close to achieving its goal of immunizing 63 million children in 10 West African states during the campaign conducted February 23-27.

"There is good news," Corkum said in a Washington File interview. "Thirty five of thirty seven (Nigerian) states did go ahead with the campaign," allowing infants and young children to receive vaccine to prevent the crippling viral disease.

According to press reports, Islamic leaders in Nigeria's Kano and Zamfara states have voiced concerns about the safety of the vaccine, alleging that it can cause infertility and HIV/AIDS. The vaccine has been used widely throughout the world, and WHO is certain of its safety. Still, Corkum said further safety tests are being conducted on the vaccine currently to allay those concerns with the hope that the hesitant states will participate in another West African immunization campaign set for late March.

As National Immunization Days unfolded this week, a case of paralytic polio was confirmed in Ivory Coast, more than three years after that West African nation was believed to be free of the disease. WHO is investigating whether the recently reported case is linked to viruses that spread out of Nigeria in 2003 after local authorities suspended immunization campaigns.

Polio has resurfaced in seven nations in west and central Africa previously declared polio-free. In a February 20 statement, WHO officials said the Nigerian refusal to participate in widespread immunization programs was the cause of the virus' resurgence in neighboring nations.

The GPEI is a joint effort of WHO, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the public service organization Rotary International.

UNICEF Director Carol Bellamy dismissed the Nigerian suspicions about the vaccine in a February 25 statement. "It is unforgivable to allow still more children to be paralyzed because of further delay and baseless rumors," said Bellamy in a statement issued from UNICEF's Geneva headquarters. "We call on these authorities to immediately rejoin the polio eradication effort, which promises to be one of Africa's greatest success stories in public health. Nigerian leaders must take this opportunity now, or answer to their children."

GPEI has been under way since the late 1980s and aspires to rid the world of the polio virus by 2005. When the initiative was started, an estimated 350,000 cases occurred annually. In 2003, fewer than 750 cases of the disease were detected worldwide, according to WHO data, and the virus was considered endemic -- that is, naturally prevalent in a particular area -- in only six nations. Because of the highly infectious nature of the polio virus, GPEI officials have long said that polio must be eradicated everywhere, by all nations, if it is to be eradicated at all.

Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Niger, Nigeria and Pakistan are the six remaining countries with endemic virus. Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo are the eight nations where the disease has reemerged. With 23 cases, Chad has experienced the largest outbreak.