The governments of Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Niger, and Nigeria are leading the charge to end polio in the Lake Chad Basin. Writing about this powerful collaboration, UNICEF’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Gilles Fagninou, underscores how strong national leadership and close partnerships are vital in the effort to reach every child and deliver a polio free world.
The Lake Chad Basin links millions of lives. Its waters nourish the land, linking communities and their hopes. But for too long, they have also carried a shadow, that of a virus that clings to its shores, crossing borders and robbing children of their strength and their future: polio.
The virus sneaks in wherever vigilance is lacking: where vaccination fails, where conflict and displacement complicate access to care. But this year, five countries (Central African Republic, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria) have joined forces to tackle the threat. Through an unprecedented mobilization, they put up a collective barrier to the disease, vaccinating over 83 million children in two synchronized campaigns.
This collective commitment was built up at every stage: under the aegis of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), meetings between health ministers and national and international partners (UNICEF and WHO) have helped coordinate efforts and guarantee effective strategies in the field. Borders were erased to affirm a will: that of an Africa that refuses to see one more child paralyzed by polio.
Today, polio is on the decline in the Lake Chad Basin: cases have been falling for three years. But circulation continues in Nigeria and Chad, with 19 and 18 cases respectively reported this year. As long as the virus continues to spread, as long as a child remains vulnerable, we cannot let our guard down.
Over the past few months, our caregivers have made their way to the last arms of the lake, to the islands forgotten by maps. Men and women like Hassan Zakaria, 28, a community outreach worker in the Sila region of Chad, have followed the tributaries, cool box in hand, by boat or on foot; they have carried the vaccines to reach every family, every child, and build a bulwark against the virus.
Thanks to their efforts and those of the governments of the Lake Chad Basin, eradication is now a near shore, where polio will be but a memory.
But the effort must continue. As long as a single child is ill, the virus will continue to circulate. The states of the Lake Chad Basin must maintain this momentum: reinforce routine vaccination and the quality of campaigns, improve surveillance, close the loopholes that could allow the virus to persist.
This month, Africa has shown that it can stand up to this disease. This is not an isolated success, but a strong signal: with commitment and coordination, polio eradication is possible. The Lake Chad Basin nurtures and unites children and their communities. It must never again bind them together by disease.
