No Polio Case In Cross River Says FG

By Jonathan Ugbal

The Federal Government has validated Cross River State government position on the suspected Polio case dismissing the issue as a case of clubfoot also known as Talipes.

“The physical assessment or examination revealed that the signs that suggest complications of Polio Virus infection were not present in this child” said The acting Executive Secretary of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Emmanuel Odu Thursday in Abuja reports Premium Times.

Also, the Incident Manager of the National Polio Emergency Operation Center, Dr. Usman Adamu Wednesday, told Channels Television in a telephone interview that the suspected polio case had been clinically diagnosed to be a deformity known as clubfoot.

Adamu said there was no need to take samples from the child suspected to have Polio since preliminary diagnosis showed that the deformity occurred after the child’s birth. His leg was not flaccid.

Anthony Eyibio, six was reported to have showed signs that he had Polio Monday in Ekpene-Eki community of Odukpani local government area of southern Cross River State, a 90 minutes drive from the capital city of Calabar.

The State and Federal government as well as the World Health Organisation Field Office in Calabar swung into action dispatching teams to the community with the Director General of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Betta Edu visiting the scene and posing with Anthony in a picture she circulated in the social media.

Edu and the Health Commissioner, Dr. Inyang Asibong later issued statements saying the incident was not Polio after diagnosis on Wednesday.

Anthony’s mother who reportedly has six other kids said the deformity was noticed when he was 12 weeks old and has been unable to receive medical attention due to the poor state of the Primary Health facility in the community.

However, the state government says it is working hard to achieve universal health coverage and has made the revitalization of the Primary Health Care system a priority with the recent transfer of staff from the unified local government scheme to the Agency which was created last year.