Abstract
The need for a country or region to achieve certification as polio-free requires spending at least 3 consecutive years without a reported case of polio. Meeting the acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) core surveillance indicators forms an important requirement during the stipulated period towards achieving certification. In addition to meeting the AFP core indicators, non-polio enteroviruses (NPENT) rate is key in evaluating whether the reported AFP meets the minimum required to be tag as true AFP. This cross-sectional quantitative study distributed questionnaires to 20 disease surveillance and notification officers (DSNOs) on the AFP surveillance network of Bauchi State, Nigeria. The responses were collated and analyzed accordingly. The result shows that although 20 (100%) DSNOs/assistant DSNOs were involved in the process of stool collection only 12 (60%) participated in the process for all cases reported in their respective LGAs in 2015. Additionally, while 9 (45%) of the respondents admit that specimen are batched in Bauchi prior transporting to Gombe, 18 (90%) of the responses shows that specimen are batched in Gombe for onward delivery to the national polio laboratory in Ibadan. Thus, the low NPENT rate (10.3%) recorded in Bauchi in 2015 could be attributed to factors that include batching of specimens before the final analysis in national polio laboratory, failure of DSNOs/assistant DSNOs to fully participate in the process of stool collection of reported AFP cases. Thus, there is need to avoid batching of stool specimen at all levels to avoid compromising outcome of the final analysis.
Highlights
The global fight against poliomyelitis has recorded yet another milestone with the delisting of Nigeria in the last quarter of 2015 from the list of polio endemic countries [1, 3]
There were two broad columns for demographic information of the respondent and questions centred on when last the disease surveillance and notification officers (DSNOs) had training on surveillance, cumulative number of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) reported in 2015, participation in the process of stool specimen collection and how the specimens were transported to the laboratory for final analysis
In an earlier study on Bauchi State that looked at the 2015 AFP core indicators, based on results available from the national polio laboratory as at 30th March 2016, it was observed that of the 534 AFPs reported from across the 20 LGAs in the State in 2015, Bauchi and Toro LGAs had highest number of AFP cases each having 50 (9.36%) [7]
Summary
The global fight against poliomyelitis has recorded yet another milestone with the delisting of Nigeria in the last quarter of 2015 from the list of polio endemic countries [1, 3]. Countries are expected to meet up with the stool adequacy rates of at least 80% of all specimens collected from suspected AFP cases [1, 4].
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