UNICEF reports five poliovirus detections in Niger

The United Nations Children’s Fund has reported five poliovirus detections in Niger State, comprising three samples from humans and two from environmental surveillance, raising concerns over the continued circulation of the virus.

The agency urged residents to strengthen surveillance, community sensitisation and routine immunisation to prevent further spread and help the state achieve polio-free status.

UNICEF disclosed this on Wednesday during a mass mobilisation dialogue organised in collaboration with the Niger State Primary Health Care Development Agency.

The agency’s representative, Mrs Grace Odeyemi, said the virus was detected in Bida and Chanchaga Local Government Areas, calling for increased surveillance and compliance with polio vaccination.

She urged parents to ensure their children received the vaccine and encouraged community leaders to support awareness campaigns.

Odeyemi explained that health workers monitored children with symptoms of paralysis and collected samples for laboratory testing to determine whether the condition was caused by poliovirus or another illness.

“We still carry out routine immunisation of the population. We are vaccinating the children to ensure that we eradicate the disease from the state. We sample humans, that is, any child that we find in the community with paralysis, having a similar feature to polio-affected victims.

“We quickly notify our local surveillance officers to collect samples for tests to see if it is polio or something else that is actually causing the paralysis because it’s not only the polio virus that causes paralysis,” she said.

She added that environmental surveillance was also used to detect the virus in samples collected from the surroundings, even where no human case had been identified.

“We detected the virus in Chanchaga and also in Bida. The virus is still circulating within our environment where we collected the sample.

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“So, we have one reported in Chanchaga and the second one was also found from environmental sampling in Bida, LG, making a total of five polio detections we have in the state, three from human and two from environmental sampling,” she said.

The Niger State Immunisation Officer, Abubakar Usman, also confirmed the five detections, saying the state had introduced routine and reactive vaccination to protect children and contain the spread.

“The virus was detected in the state. We found three from human and two from environmental sampling and a lot of strategies have been put in place to curtail the spread of these diseases. We did reactive vaccination, that is, we promptly reacted to vaccinate other children within those areas where those viruses were actually found,” he said.

Usman said health officials had also engaged community leaders and other intervention groups to educate residents on the importance of immunisation.

He attributed the continued circulation of the virus to poor routine immunisation and vaccine hesitancy in some communities.

“All of this is as a result of what? Poor routine immunisation. The virus is here and it is as a result of a high level of non-compliance. This is just a drop in the ocean. We are able to see this because it’s a campaign. We have to go out to actually act rather than the concept of the mother to bring their child for vaccination compared to routine immunisation that is voluntary,” he added.

The latest detections came months after Niger State reported three new polio cases in Magama and Mariga Local Government Areas, prompting the state government to intensify surveillance and community sensitisation.

In June 2026, health authorities, in collaboration with UNICEF and other partners, also organised engagements with traditional and religious leaders to strengthen efforts to prevent the spread of the virus.
Nigeria was certified free of wild poliovirus in August 2020, but circulating variant poliovirus remains a public health concern, particularly in communities with low immunisation coverage.

The World Health Organisation has continued to call for stronger routine vaccination and surveillance to prevent further transmission.