Prevalence of paralytic poliomyelitis in children of Kwara State, Nigeria: report of a house-to-house survey.

During March 1988, a house-to-house survey was carried out to determine the prevalence of poliomyelitis in Ilorin Local Government Area (LGA) of Kwara State, Nigeria. The survey identified 4576 children aged 5 to 9 years old in the households visited from forty randomly selected clusters in the area. Of the 41 lame children, lameness compatible with paralytic poliomyelitis was found in 31, of these 87% had their condition before the age of 3 years. Thirteen percent needed a stick support for walking while 16% were unable to walk even with support. The prevalence rate of residual polio paralysis was 6.8/1000 children 5-9 years old. When all cases of residual paralysis, deaths and recoveries are taken into account, this translates to an incidence of 8.4/1000 children aged 5-9 years old and an annual incidence of 38.3/100,000 general population.