Number of annual polio cases in Nigeria quadruples; WHO, government working to vaccinate millions of children

Nigeria has reported 43 cases of polio so far this year, up from 11 cases in 2010, and the disease has spread to Niger, Mali, and Cote d'Ivoire, according to a WHO official, BBC News reports. "Polio was affecting eight northern Nigerian states -- two more than a few months ago, the head of Nigeria's National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA), Dr. Ado Muhammad, told the BBC."

The WHO official, Thomas Moran, "said the Nigerian government had shown 'strong leadership' in the campaign to eradicate polio and the WHO had been carrying out large scale vaccination programs to prevent the disease from spreading," according to BBC (11/21). "In 2011, only four countries (Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan) remain polio-endemic, down from more than 125 in 1988," the International Business Times writes (Thakur, 11/21).