The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja.

Pate spoke at a high-level meeting with the Polio Oversight Board development partners and government officials.

He expressed concern over the financial burden of polio eradication.

He said that in spite of strong political commitment, Nigeria had continued to face operational challenges hindering complete eradication of poliovirus.

“Key among these challenges is false vaccination records, with one in four children marked as vaccinated despite not receiving the vaccine,” he said.

Pate also identified as a challenge, weak supervision leading to inconsistencies in immunisation coverage.

He added that poor micro-planning left vulnerable children unvaccinated, particularly in high-risk communities.

To tackle these, he said that the government has activated a Polio Task Force under the National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima.

He said that it had mandated state governors to take full ownership of polio eradication efforts at the local government level.

The minister said that strict accountability must be enforced at all levels to ensure that Nigeria would not reverse its gains in polio eradication.

He said that Nigeria was working to integrate polio eradication into routine primary healthcare services.

“ This aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which prioritises expanding primary healthcare infrastructure and improving service delivery, retraining 120,000 frontline health workers, with 60,000 already trained, and promoting local vaccine production.”

Pate said that the agenda also priorised strengthening surveillance and outbreak response mechanisms to detect and respond swiftly to poliovirus cases.

The minister also identified misinformation and vaccine hesitancy as major threats to polio eradication.

He called on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to take decisive actions against false vaccine narratives which, he said, had contributed to lower vaccine acceptance in some communities.

“We are engaging traditional and religious leaders to counter misinformation, but digital platforms must do more to curb false narratives about vaccines,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that while Nigeria was declared free of wild poliovirus in 2020, challenges have persisted with circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV).

Volunteer Community Mobilisers (VCMs) have been instrumental in raising awareness and countering misinformation about polio vaccination.

In northern Nigeria, VCMs engage directly with families, addressing concerns and emphasising the importance of immunisation.

Their efforts have significantly contributed to increased vaccine acceptance.

The Federal Government, in collaboration with global partners, aims to interrupt all poliovirus transmission, including cVDPV, by the end of 2026.

This ambitious goal requires enhanced routine immunisation, swift outbreak responses, and robust surveillance systems to monitor and address new cases promptly. (NAN)

The findings from a report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a specialised branch of WHO, also projected annual deaths from the disease to rise by 68 percent.

It warned that if the current trend was not checked, the cases would continue to rise.

The findings were published in Nature Medicine on Monday.

They warn further that if current trends continue, the world will see 3.2 million new breast cancer cases and 1.1 million related deaths each year by mid-century.

“The burden will be disproportionately felt in low- and middle-income countries, where access to early detection, treatment and care remains limited,” the findings indicate.

“Every minute, four women are diagnosed with breast cancer worldwide and one woman dies from the disease, and these statistics are worsening,” the report, quoted Dr. Joanne Kim, an IARC scientist and co-author of the report, as saying.

“Countries can mitigate or reverse these trends by adopting primary prevention policies, such as WHO’s recommended ‘best buys’ for non-communicable disease prevention, and by investing in early detection and treatment,” she added.

Kim noted that breast cancer remained the most common cancer among women worldwide and the second most common cancer overall.

In 2022 alone, an estimated 2.3 million new cases were diagnosed, with 670,000 deaths reported.

However, the report highlights significant disparities across regions.

The highest incidence rates were recorded in Australia, New Zealand, North America and Northern Europe, while the lowest rates were found in South-Central Asia and parts of Africa.

Meanwhile, the highest mortality rates were reported in Melanesia, Polynesia and Western Africa, where limited access to healthcare contributes to poorer outcomes.

The link between breast cancer survival and economic development is stark.

In high-income countries, 83 percent of diagnosed women survive, whereas in low-income countries, more than half of women diagnosed with breast cancer die from it.

WHO launched the Global Breast Cancer Initiative in 2021, aiming to reduce breast cancer mortality rates by 2.5 per cent per year, which can prevent 2.5 million deaths by 2040.

The initiative focuses on early detection, timely diagnosis and access to quality treatment.

Dr. Isabelle Soerjomataram, Deputy Head of IARC’s Cancer Surveillance Branch, emphasised the need for high-quality cancer data to drive better policies in lower-income regions.

“Continued progress in early diagnosis and improved access to treatment are essential.

“These will help to address the global gap in breast cancer and ensure that the goal of reducing suffering and death from breast cancer is achieved by all countries worldwide,” she said.

The report underscores the importance of stronger health systems, increased funding for breast cancer screening and treatment and the adoption of cost-effective prevention policies.

With the projected rise in cases and deaths, the international community faces an urgent challenge.

This is the one that requires coordinated action to ensure millions of lives are not lost to a disease that is increasingly preventable and treatable.(NAN)