Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie for Canada, has announced that the country has made a contribution of more than $19 million to help eradicate polio from Nigeria. The grant, which will be implemented over the next year and will continue through 2020, will help immunize approximately 14 million children in 11 high-risk states in the African nation. A portion of the donation will also go toward training 154,000 vaccinators and will help with the protection of 250,000 children from vaccine preventable illnesses. “As recently as 2012, Nigeria was the global epicenter in the world as Nigerian poliovirus frequently spread internationally, causing outbreaks as far away as Indonesia,” she said. “However, in September 2015, the World Health Organization removed Nigeria from the list of endemic countries and for over 22 months now, there has been no reported case of polio. However, on-going immunization activities are essential to forestall any re-emergence of the virus.”

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