Health, 2014, 6, 2602-2610 Published Online November 2014 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/health http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/health.2014.619299 How to cite this paper: Bassey, B.E., et al. (2014) Characteristics of Acute Flaccid Paralysis Reported by the Surveillance System and Verified by WHO Officer in Akwa Ibom State-Nigeria, 2006-2012. Health, 6, 2602-2610. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/health.2014.619299 Characteristics of Acute Flaccid Paralysis Reported by the Surveillance System and Verified by WHO Officer in Akwa Ibom State-Nigeria, 2006-2012 Bassey Enya Bassey 1* , Vaz Gama Rui 1 , Alex Ntale Gasasira 1 , Mkanda Pascal 1 , Goitom Weldegbriel 1 , Ticha Johnson Mulum 1 , Sylvester T. Maleghemi 1 , Emem Abasi Bassey 2 1 World Health Organisation, Abuja, Nigeria 2 Ministry of Health, Uyo, Nigeria Email: * bassey69@yahoo.com , ruivaz@who.int , gasasiraa@yahoo.co.uk , Mkandap@who.int , weldegebrielg@who.int , TICHAJ@who.int , maleghemis@who.int , basseyemem@yahoo.com Received 3 September 2014; revised 20 October 2014; accepted 3 November 2014 Copyright © 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Background: Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) was adopted by World Health Organization (WHO) in 1988 as a key pillar used in monitoring progress towards the global polio eradication initiative. High quality AFP surveillance is essential to support this global initiative. We applied recently de- veloped case verification methods for the quantitative evaluation of AFP cases reported to the surveillance systems to evaluate the quality of AFP reports in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Objectives: The aim of this study is to identify the demographic, clinical and epidemiological attributes and quality of acute flaccid paralysis surveillance. Methods: All AFP cases reported in children 0 - 14 years during January 2006 to December 2012 were investigated and verified by WHO surveillance officers, using standard questionnaire. Two stool samples 24 - 48 hours apart from a total of 1184 AFP cases were collected within 14 days of onset of paralysis with the prior oral/verbal informed consent and transported to the national polio laboratory under reverse cold chain. Result: In all, 885/1184 representing 75% of the AFP cases reported were verified by WHO officers in the pe- riod under review. Overall, 534/885 (60.3%) of AFP cases had more than >3 doses of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), while 196/885 (22.2%) received 3 dose of OPV and 128/885 (14.5%) received between 1 - 2 doses of OPV. It was interesting that 27/885 (3%) never received OPV before. Over- all, 743/885 (84.0%) were reported within ≤14 days of paralysis onset, while 142/885 (16%) * Corresponding author.