The Federal government said it has constituted 12-man medical experts in readiness, as one of the measures against importation of the Wild Polio Virus outbreak in Malawi.

Chairman of the 12-member expert committee is Prof Akin Osibogun, a public health specialist.

Other members of the team which is drawn from the academia, the media, donors and

development partners including WHO, CDC and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are; Prof Dorothy Esangbedo, Prof Shuaib Bello, Prof Clara Ejembi, Prof Sade Ogunsola, Prof B.S.C. Uzochukwu, Prof Ilayisu Zubairu, Dr. Muhammad Dallatu, Mr Mannir Dan Ali, Dr Steve Cochi (CDC), Mr Aidan O’Leary (WHO) and Jay Wenger (BMGF).

“The reconstituted ERC have a renewable tenure of two years and will be inaugurated at a date to be announced soon”, said the government in a statement on Friday, February 25, and made available to News Express.

The government said one of the measures against the WPV is the reactivation and reconstitution of the Expert Review Committee on Polio Eradication and Routine Immunization (ERC).

The ERC provides expert advice and guidance on strategies and approaches for polio

eradication and routine immunization.

The committee, according to the government, meets periodically to review the country’s polio eradication and routine immunization programmes taking into consideration population-based and laboratory studies, programmatic approaches, cost information, and other issues so as to provide a holistic and practical advice to the country.

In the statement by the ED/CEO, National Primary HealthCare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, “The ERC’s expert advice contributed immensely to the country’s achievement of WPV-free status in August 2020.

“Consequently, it has become imperative to reactivate the committee following the recent outbreak of WPV in Malawi and the outbreaks of circulating variant of polio virus type 2 (cVPV2) in Nigeria. The ERC is expected to work with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency to come up with multistakeholder plans to strengthen surveillance, build population immunity, mitigate against and control all forms of polio viruses”.

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