WorldStage Newsonline– Oyo State Government has expressed optimism of attaining 95per cent measles vaccination during the six days 2018 exercise which closes today from 84.5 per cent coverage in 2015.
Over 8,000 health care workers were deployed for the exercise with a target of vaccinating 1.2 million children in the state.
Executive Secretary, Primary Health Care Board (PHCB), Oyo State, Dr. Lanre Abass during an interview with WorldStage Newsonline, said the micro plan for the vaccination exercise was designed to achieve 100 per cent target population if possible.
He said, “Already, we have over 1,200 teams that are on the field in different ward and Local Government Areas (LGAs), 156 survey man team, even some LGA supported by five and seven man special teams, so we have over 8,000 people deployed for the exercise, so it’s our hope that we will surpass the 95%.”
Dr Abass explained that improved political will adequate micro plan and financial support cannot be overemphasized, adding that, “We need to have improve political support for vaccination programs and Immunization in the country, from the federal, state and LGAs.
“We want to see our political leaders coming out to talk about immunization publicly and the financial support cannot be over emphasized. It’s important that we put some finances into it. I have just said we deployed over 8000 people in Oyo State alone not to talk of what will happen in 36 states including the FCT.
“So it’s expensive to run a meaningful program like this, so if there is a gap in any of this technical knowhow in terms of adequate micro plan, financial support, political will, there will be some gaps, but the country as a whole realized this a year of two ago.
“You can see the Executive Director of National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib, working for the Federal Government declares a state of emergency as far as immunization in concern nationwide.
“With this state of emergency and the various interventions we have now, we will make a lot of difference. This measles campaign is like any other one previously, there is seriousness in every aspect of it and better result is expected.”
Shuaib in a statement said 33 million Nigerian children aged nine to 59 months are to be immunized against measles by the end of the campaign.
He said that the Federal Government`s aim was to reach 95 per cent in the 2017/2018 campaign, against the 84.5 per cent coverage attained in the 2015 campaign.
He noted that the measles vaccine would be administered to children at health centres, fixed health posts, churches, mosques, motor parks, public places, schools and homes.
Shuaib said a phasing campaign had been introduced as part of the efforts to ensure highest quality coverage and effective measles campaign in the country.
According to the NPHCDA head, the North-west campaign will run from November 9 to 21, while that of the North-east will be from November 30 to December 12.
For the North-central, the campaign will take place from February 1-20 next year, while it will hold in all states in the Southern part of the country from March 8 to 20, 2018.
Earlier, Dr. Azeez Adeduntan, Commissioner of Health, during the flag off, noted that vaccination will be carried out in phase 1 and phase 2.
He said, 17 Local Government Areas (LGAs), will be covered during the first phase of the measles vaccination campaign between 15 -20 March 2018 and 16 LGAs to be covered in the second phase from 22-27 March 2018.
Adeduntan said, “We don’t want to leave anyone behind during the vaccination, that’s why we divided the campaign into two phases. We have social advocate going from house to house to reach out to people in intense areas.
The commissioner explained that vaccination would not kill children and would not affect their mental attitude while advising parents and caregivers to make their children available for vaccination.
He said, “We are here to support the goal of this government to make sure that our mothers and children don’t die prematurely, more or less to achieve global standards in terms of maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate.”
