The Federal Government has taken the second batch of immunisation of children in the country against measles to 17 southern states in the country. First batch of the exercise, which was largely marred by fuel scarcity, took place between 25th – 29th November, last year, in 19 states in the North, while the second batch took place between January 28 and February 1 this year.
Federal Government said it was targeting 39 million children in the laps of the exercise. Measles is prevalent in Nigeria during hot season and reportedly kills large population of the children. Apart from the yearly routine polio immunisation, government carries out immunisation against measles biennially. Federal Government said it was not only targeting polio-free certification from the World Health Organization, but more global commendation on successes in other areas of health in the country, namely maternal and child morbidity and mortality among others. Executive-Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, Dr. Ado Muhammad, told our correspondent at the commencement of the event last year that the exercise was for children between the ages of nine and 59 months. He explained that the reason the agency chose the age range was because epidemiological results had indicated that about 80 per cent of the disease burden was in the age range. “The measles campaign is a follow-up campaign.
We have our routine immunisation system in place. And, children that are born newly are immunised through the immunisation platform. We have vaccines in our primary health care centres. We have vaccines in our secondary facilities. However, for those children that are missed, through routine immunisation platform, we are carrying out this follow-up campaign…. “The essence is to provide immunity for our children, and it also helps to mitigate the occurrence of epidemics. That is why in every two years, we carry out vaccination campaign so that we can reach children that have been missed in routine immunisation and give a second dose of opportunity to those already vaccinated,” he added. He continued: “The campaign is structured in two ways. One is facilitybased immunisation in which we expect children and wards to primary health centres. We also have outposts that we’ve identified such as churches, mosques, schools and homes of our traditional leaders. We also build transit point so that we will not miss any child in that age range. We will also target motor parks and other hard-to-reach areas in-between states and international borders… “We also have made arrangement at all the IDP camps in the securitychallenged areas of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. As at last count, we have identified about 96 IDP camps, distributed in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, and also part of FCT. Those IDP camps are also part of temporary posts…
“The essence is that no child should be missed. We do not want to miss any child. We are determined to have quality campaign. We are determined to ensure that we have optimal uptake of this exercise. We are trying to ensure that we achieve 95 per cent coverage, so that we can reduce and bring to the barest minimum, the burden of this disease in this country. “The Federal Government of Nigeria, through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency is committed to child survival. We know with effective immunisation, about 40 per cent of deaths in under-five can be reduced. We are committed to ensuring that we reduce to the barest minimum the burden of disease in this country.”
By: Marcus Fatunmole
National Mirror News
ABUJA: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
PORTHARCOURT: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
LAGOS: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
STOP paying for airtime and electricity, Let your phone pay its bills with ScreenT
You may also like
Comrade Lemii Christian Emerges Chairman of NANNM Rivers State Branch in Historic Victory
PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA Following the long awaited National Association of N…
FG Supports Robotic Surgery Expansion to Reduce Medical Tourism
Nigeria is taking another step toward strengthening specialised healthcare …
Complete Knee Replacement Rehabilitation Package in Lagos
Knee replacement surgery is a major step toward pain relief and improved mo…
NAMDA threatens strike over unpaid medical lecturers’ allowances
The Nigerian Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA) has warned…
Resident Doctors Signal End to Strike Threat After High-Level Talks with Gbajabiamila
The threat of a nationwide indefinite strike by the Nigerian Association of…
