Posted on: Thu 04-05-2017

The Federal Government of Nigeria in collaboration with World Health organization has recognized the contributions of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) to the national and global health needs describing the hospital as a model for others.

Under the firm control of its Chief Medical Director (CMD) Professor A. W. O. Olatinwo the UITH had in the recent past recorded many feats without any casualty in such areas as; IVF, Renal Transplantation, Open Heart Surgeries among others.

Therefore, the Federal Government receiving the supports of the world health body has graciously approved University Teaching Hospitals Enugu and the UITH Ilorin as sites for surveillance of Rotavirus Diarrhea disease and Pediatric Bacterial Meningitis.

The findings from these sentinel sites will help on information sharing and data collection on rotavirus and pneumococcal disease burden and impact of the vaccine introduction into routine immunization, which will guide public health policy and interventions.

Speaking further on the sentinel sites, the Executive Director and Chief Executive, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib disclosed that there are five sentinel sites for new Vaccines Surveillance in Nigeria but only University Teaching Hospital, Enugu and that of Ilorin have been designated as sentinel sites for Rotavirus and other diarrhea related diseases among Children under 5 years.

Dr. Faisal said that data generated from the sentinel sites would be used to determine the burden of various organisms causing diarrhea or meningitis.

He gave the assurance that the Federal Government would continue to work closely with the two teaching hospitals in Enugu and Ilorin and other sentinel sites will further reduce morbidity and mortality from vaccine preventable diseases.

According to him, the three other Universities serving as sentinel sites for only Pediatric Bacterial Meningitis (PBM) are the University Teaching Hospital Benin, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital Bauchi and Lagos University Teaching Hospital Lagos.

The director recalled that the Federal Ministry of Health introduced the new vaccine surveillance site at University teaching Hospital Lagos in June 2009, while the National Primary Health Care Development Agency made a proposal for the expansion of the sites.

He disclosed that the University Teaching Hospital Enugu commenced its Pediatric Bacterial Meningitis (PBM) and rotavirus surveillance in December, 2011.

The Executive Director appealed to parents, guardians to avail themselves of the opportunity provided by the joint investments of the Federal Government and WHO.

Dr. Faisal described immunization as one of the best investments by the Federal Government and reiterated the Federal Government’s continued commitment to investing in the health of children.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that rotavirus vaccines should be introduced into the routine immunization schedule especially in countries with high diarrhea mortality rates in children, as part of a comprehensive approach to prevent and control diarrhea.

In Nigeria, the NPHCDA with support from GAVI and WHO, along with other partners continue the drive to introduce more new vaccines and strengthen disease surveillance aimed at reducing preventable death among Nigeria Children by 2025.

Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, among others have been selected to conduct sentinel sites surveillance for all forms of diarrhea diseases amongst children under 5 years.

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