By Andy Adaigbe.
SAPELE.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state, yesterday, flagged off the first round of the 2018 National Immunization Plus Days in Sapele, Delta state with a call on Local Government Council Chairmen to supervise the health centers in their areas and to enable their people access the drugs provided by the drug revolving fund.
The governor who was ably represented by the state commissioner for health, Dr. Ononye Mordi, stated that the NIPDs was a campagin targeted at immunising children aged 0-59 months of age with two drops of the oral polio vaccine regardless of their previous immunisation status. He remarked that the idea was to catch children who were not immunized or only partially protected and to boost immunity in those who had been immunized.
According to the health commissioner, " the NIPDs 2018 is a supplemental immunization campaign, geared towards ensuring immunity among under 5 children against poliomyelitis and towards the eradication of the disease in Nigeria. Polio is a crippling disease which can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection. To combat the spread of the disease, the NPHCDA has developed a comprehensive programme to eradicate polio through series of Immuization Plus Days, and Sub-national Immunization Plus Days, enusring that every child has access to immunization services".
He continued " May I remind us that Nigeria is at the verge of being declared polio-free and to be certified, the nation needs to maintain a zero case status, strengthening surveillance system, improve routine immunization and maintain high quality immuization campaign".
Dr. Mordi observed that the road to poilio eradication hangs on vaccine coverage and supplemental immunization. He noted that polio usually enters the environment in the faeces of an infected person and in areas with poor sanitation disclosing that direct contact with an infected person could cause polio adding that efforts towards the radication of polio in delta state had yielded fruits, since the state had not recorded any polio outbreak for the past seven years.
In her address, the chairman of the Delta State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Isioma Okobah, stressed the need for multiple doses of the vaccines remarking that every child deserves to be immunized irrespective of their status.
According to the agency chairman, " the National Immunization Days Plus are conducted in two rounds hence our vaccinanators shall be going from house to house within four days (21st-24th April, 2018) to administer the vaccine directly to every eligible child. There was need for multiple doses of oral polio vaccines to stop polio in Nigeria hence we must build a wall of immunity to fully protect the Nigerian child from the polio virus.
Every child has the right to grow up healthy and strong and be protected from all diseases to which there is a known cure including polio. We are very close to the goal. We need to stay focused, push through and win this fight for the Nigerian child".
Dr. Okobah further commended the LGA chairmen for their weights benind the last measles campaign in the state, describing it as a huge success and amazing experience "as the whole state went agog".
She sued for communities involvement as essential to attaining high quality care while urging stakeholders, including parents, political and religious institutions, civil societies organizations and the media, to play a role in ensuring that children under five years were fully vaccinated.
Dr. Okobah also urged health practitioners to partner with the communities which according to her, could improve access and the utilisation of immunisation services. She used the opportunity to appreciate the partners; WHO, UNICEF, ROATRY INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL PRIMARY HEALTH CARE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, CDC/AFENET, for their various contributuons to the wellbeing of women annd children in Delta state.
Highlight of the ceremony was the immunization of the children on ground by the health commissioner accompanied by the chairman of the DPHCDA amidst side attractions by supporters of the Okowa administration.
