DETECTION OF POLIO VIRUS ANTIBODIES LEVEL AMONG CHILDREN IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA.

The study was conducted to detect poliovirus antibody and its level in children aged < 5 years in three local government areas (LGAs) of Kano state, Nigeria. The study was a hospital-based study and purposive sampling was used in selecting one health institution each from the three LGAs. Random sampling was employed in selecting 423 children whose blood samples were collected and analyzed for the presence of poliovirus antibody and its level using polyclonal Elisa detection kits. The study revealed that 94.1% of the children were seropositive for poliovirus with mean titer value of 1.6938, and age was significantly associated with seroprevalence rates with 33.4% and 37.4% of the seropositive children in the age groups 0-12 and 13-24 months respectively (p<0.05). Also, no significant difference existed in the seropositivity rates of the children regarding their sex as well as their mother?s educational level (p>0.05), although the father?s educational level significantly affected it (p<0.05). The Poliovirus antibody mean titer level significantly increases in routine and campaign oral poliovirus (OPV) immunization as the number of the vaccine doses increases (p<0.05). The study detected a high seroprevalence rates to poliovirus among children in Kano state and recommends that fathers should be considered as a target group in the course of enlightenment campaign as well as the need for more efforts to improve literacy level of women and to target the unimmunized children whose lack of immunity poses a risk of re-emergence of the poliovirus infection in Nigeria.