Nigeria is one of the three countries in the world with ongoing wild poliovirus (WPV) transmission, alongside Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nigeria also experiences outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2). Following the detection of WPV1 in northern Nigeria in 2016, after more than two years without WPV transmission, the country continues to implement an emergency response to the detected WPV1 and cVDPV2 strains. This resurgence of polio cases underscores the risk posee by low-level undetected transmission and the need to strengthen subnational surveillance. High quality acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance is essential to rapidly detect and respond to on-going polio transmission.
Objective:
We evaluated the Ebonyi state AFP surveillance system to assess its usefulness, performance and key system attributes.