The Adamawa State Government has identified Gombi and Fufore as two local government areas in the state in which mutated polio virus exists and for which vaccination exercise has been scheduled for the coming week.
Mutated polio virus is otherwise called circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus.
The Adamawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency, ADSPHCDA, said Friday that, working with development partners, it has scheduled exclusive vaccination for November 5-12, targeting 130,000 children in the two LGAs.
The Director of Immunization in the ADSPHCDA, Dr James Vassumu Jacob, explaining the upcoming exercise during a media dialogue on the November 2026 National Plus Days Immunization Campaign, said the immunization planned for Gombi and Fufore is to strengthen immunity in the targeted communities.
“Nigeria is free of wild polio,” he asserted, adding however that active case search by the state’s surveillance team identified Gombi and Fufore to have circulating variant polio virus which could be harmful in children with weak immunity.
He explained further that polioviruses are in two categories: the wild poliovirus, which occurs naturally and spreads fast and leads to paralysis, and the vaccine-derived poliovirus which is a rare strain that genetically mutates from the weakened live virus found in the oral polio vaccine and which, if allowed to circulate among unvaccinated children for long, can mutate and cause harm similar to the wild variant.
He said the immunization plus days which have periodically covered the whole state of 21 LGAs is limited to just two this time because of the discovery of vulnerability of the targeted communities due to the presence of the mutated polio virus.
The planned immunization is supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and the World Health Organisation, WHO.
A representative of WHO, Babangida Usman, speaking during the Media Dialogue on the upcoming polio vaccination campaign in Gombi and Fufore, said WHO would always provide technical guidance and operational support to efforts aimed at ensuring that every eligible child receives the required dose of the polio vaccine.
“This campaign presents another important opportunity to close immunity gaps, reach children in underserved and hard-to-reach communities, and strengthen our collective efforts towards interrupting poliovirus transmission,” the WHO official said.
He urged parents and community members in Gombi and Fufore LGAs to welcome vaccination teams and ensure that all eligible children (0-59 months old) receive the polio vaccine, regardless of whether they have previously been vaccinated or not.