Science: Nigeria outbreak forces rethink of polio strategies
“Hit with a report of a third case of polio in northern Nigeria, leaders of the global eradication effort are asking themselves how they could have been so terribly wrong about the country. … The beleaguered Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is finally entering the home stretch, and program leaders were just about to declare a hard-earned victory in Nigeria — three years without a case of wild poliovirus. Then, in mid-August, the country reported two polio cases in children in Jere and Gwoza districts. Within days, DNA sequencing confirmed that the virus had been circulating in the region undetected for about four years…” (Roberts, 9/6).