WorldStage Newsonline– The Oyo State 2018 measles Vaccination exercise recorded a huge success this week as parents and caregivers at the Ibadan North Local government area came out in large number to vaccinate their children on Friday.
Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, through his Commissioner of health during the flag off of the exercise on Thursday said the state was targeting the vaccinate 1.2million children during the campaign.
To curtail the spread of the measles disease and prevent death of children under five years, the Federal Government through the National Primary Health care development Agency released N3.5 billion for the 2017/2018 nationwide measles vaccination campaign.
Dr. Adefunke Adesope, Zonal Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency told WorldStage Newsonline in Ibadan that parents had been sensitize to bring out there children.
“We expect all children to be immunized,” she said.
“There has been house to house sanitization and social mobilizers communicating with parents and caregivers ahead, to prepare their children for immunization.
“The only fear the people envisage is that the immunization will affect the brain of their children, but the government has been able to sensitize them.”
Dr Saheed Gidado, Deputy National Coordinator, NSTOP, Centre for Disease Control, AFENET, Abuja, said, “We are together with other partners supporting the effort of the government both at the federal and state level to ensure that eligible children are vaccinated against measles.”
Gidado, said measles is a killer disease which can cause a child to have different complications, including blindness, deafness, and mental abnormalities.
He said, “There are projections to vaccinate 1.2m children in the state or more. I’m happy with the symbolic flag off.”
He said the representation of the governor by the commissioner showed the commitment of the state government in ensuring a successful campaign.
Gidado explained that the vaccine was safe and effective in preventing measles and its free of charge, saying, “parent are not expected to start paying before their children can be vaccinated.”
He added that there is no alternative to the vaccine, “as a matter of fact, we intensify social mobilization activities throughout the nook and crannies of the state to ensure that people have the right information among what they need to do to prevent the disease.”
Dr. Wale Famiyesi, Zonal Coordinator, World Health Oganisation (WHO), said there was the need for a review at the end of each exercise in other to find out the challenges faced during the exercise.
He said, WHO will continue to support both technically, financially and to continue to monitor the vaccination coverage at all level.
