President Jonathan said the news came as a gift to him as the country is making extra effort to ensure that other communicable disease s like Wild Polio will also soon be a thing of the past.
“The certification by WHO is a global recognition of how far we have come and the success of the work that has been done to rid our nation of this scourge,” the president said. “Eradication of guinea worm disease that has long plagued many parts of our country has placed interminable burden on our citizens and as a government we have been working very hard and today we have received the good news,” he said.
He further said: “Just as we have fought the incidence of guinea worm and succeeded so are we committed in our fight against many endemic diseases such as HIV/AIDs, Malaria, Tuberculosis and of course Polio.
“While polio is yet to be eliminated in our country, we have seen the impressive results in the control of wild polio virus type 3 transmission as well as reduction of about 50 per cent cases of wild polio type 1 in 2013 compared to 2012. Similarly no new cases of wild polio virus has been reported in the last 3 months.
“We are hopeful that transmission of wild polio will be interrupted this year, at least before the end of the year “.
He commended all those who worked with Nigeria to achieve the feat, promising that he will not rest until the country is entirely free from the other diseases ravaging humanity such as HIV/AIDS.
The certificate was presented to the president by the Minister of Health, Dr Onyebuchi Chukwu, who expressed elation that the programme on Guinea worm eradication, which started under the Yaradua administration, was successfully seen through the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
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