Nigeria’s 3rd Polio Case Reportedly Confirmed

FILE - A health official administers a polio vaccine to a child in Kawo Kano, Nigeria. The World Health Organization reportedly has confirmed a third case of polio in the country

LAGOS, NIGERIA — 

The World Health Organization has confirmed a third case of polio in Nigeria, Rotary Club said Monday: a crippled toddler found in an area newly liberated from Boko Haram Islamic extremists.

The West African nation that once was the global epicenter of the wild polio virus had been declared polio-free last year, along with the African continent.

But two cases were discovered last month among refugees from areas recently won back by Nigeria's military from Boko Haram.

More cases are expected to be discovered in these areas. It is an indicator that Nigeria's war on polio cannot be won until it overcomes the insurgency by extremists who are violently opposed to Western medicine.

Rotary Club's field coordinator, Aminu Muhammad, told The Associated Press the new case was found in Monguno local government area. The others were farther south in Jere and Gwoza. All are in northern Borno state.

Rotary is participating in a new emergency immunization drive that vaccinated more than 1.5 million children last week in Borno, where WHO has said the virus has been circulating undetected for five years and where Boko Haram began its Islamic uprising in 2009.

The campaign is to spread across the country, with a plan to reach 25 million children before the end of the year.

An emergency polio vaccination campaign has begun in Nigerian areas freed from Boko Haram extremists, who oppose inoculations. Health experts fear more cases, including at displaced-persons camps such as Manu, shown here.

But the U.N. Children's Fund has warned that about 1 million children are in areas too dangerous to access.