Nigeria remains the only Polio endemic country in Africa however, tremendous progress has been made towards eradication of wild polio virus despite the setback experienced in 2016. Key among the innovative strategies for this progress is a robust AFP surveillance system. The country has consistently met the two AFP surveillance core indicators; Non- Polio AFP rate and stool adequacy for five years. Certain states and LGAs have reported very high level of these core indicators necessitating the review of the process.
A peer review evaluation of high AFP core indicators was conducted in four (4) north eastern states namely Taraba, Adamawa, Gombe and Yobe. NSTOP deployed 18 personnel (staff and graduates of NFELTP) in collaboration with government staff and other partners to support the review Process. A total of 454 true and adequate AFP cases selected from the National AFP database were reviewed using the new standardized surveillance peer review guideline.
The review was intended to determine the level of concordance of AFP cases verified and reported as true and adequate in states and LGAs with high surveillance core indicators. Teams of reviewers developed improvement plans for the states at the end of the exercise.