The Federal Government of Nigeria Has Targeted 32million
children for immunization and for Friday and Saturday.
As Nigeria continues to record giant strides in the fight to
eradicate polio virus in the country, the federal government on Friday said
about 32 million children were targeted for another round of immunisation which
commences today.
While unveiling the October routine immunisation programme,
Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA),
Dr Ado Muhammad said Nigeria could no longer afford a single case of polio, as the
damage would be monumental.
He explained that advocating for "continuous vaccination
of children zero to five with polio vaccine until WHO certifies Nigeria a polio
free country in 2017" was crucial in attaining the target goals.
Muhammad further stated that "we will be relying on you
to continue to sensitise our people on the benefits of immunisation and the
risk of non-vaccination as we cannot afford a reversal of the gains we have
made."
"Our house-to-house vaccination of children against
polio is continuous and commences on Saturday, 17th October, 2015 (today).
"It is targeted at all children aged zero to five years,
irrespective of their previous immunisation status. A total of 32 million children are targeted
during the campaign".
The vaccination will be carried out in the 11 vulnerable
states of Bauchi, Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto
and Yobe.
Muhammad also informed journalists that the vaccination would
be expanded to cover "about 96 Internally Displayed Persons (IDPs)
camps" scattered around the northern part of the country.
He observed that the need to "improve the quality of the
immunisation campaign" had become sacrosanct, arguing that, Nigeria must do everything
possible to prevent reversal of the gains made thus far.
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