FG Moves to Free Nigeria From Polio in 3yrs

by admin - Oct 4, 2016

0 770

The federal government at the weekend said it was already rolling out plans to eradicate Wild Polio Virus (WPV) from Nigeria once and for all.

While addressing a Press Conference to update the media on the government’s response to the recent Polio outbreak in the Northeast, the Acting Executive Director of National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Emmanuel Odu said the bulk of the fund needed for the intervention has been released.

He said the government budgeted and released a total of N9.8 billion for Polio eradication and immunization this year.

It would be recalled that after being free from Polio for two years, Nigeria recorded three new cases of the virus between July and August this year in Borno State.

But Dr. Odu said: “In the immediate response Mop-up targeting 5 local government areas, 820, 000 eligible children were vaccinated.”

He added that the first round, involving five contiguous and very high risk states, achieved the vaccination of 5.9 million eligible children.

Dr. Odu also said response campaign was implemented in 18 States in the Northern Nigeria including the FCT in the second outbreak response strategy.

“This round targets 31.54 million eligible children for which a total of 38.4 million doses of Polio Vaccines were deployed to the states”, he said.

According to him, 28,757,161 children under the age of five years were vaccinated in the exercise which took place between 17-20 September, 2016.

He said apart from efforts being made by Nigeria, all other members of the Lake Chad Basin involving; Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Central Africa Republic were also carrying out a synchronized implementation of Polio campaigns in response to the Nigeria outbreak.

The third outbreak response, fourth and fifth Immunization Responses will take place on 15-18 October, 29 October- 01November and 19-22 November respectively.

While expressing optimism that when fully implemented, the campaign will finally eradicate the Polio Virus in the country, Dr. Odu said there were still some areas not accessible in the Northeast.

One in five African children go without vaccines – Report

News

by admin - Feb 25, 2016

0 551

A new report by the African region of the World Health Organisation has revealed that one in every five African children does not have access to vaccines.

The report titled, “Fulfilling a promise: Ensuring immunisation for all in Africa,” was presented on Tuesday at the on-going Ministerial Conference on Immunisation in Africa, in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia.

It stated that despite considerable progress in expanding access to vaccines in Africa, one in five children on the continent still does not receive life-saving immunisation. The report ranked Africa’s routine immunisation coverage of 80 per cent as the lowest of any region in the world.

The report is the first to summarise immunisation progress and challenges across the continent since global leaders declared the Decade of Vaccines and launched the 2011-2020 Global Vaccine Action Plan.

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, said it was high time ministers in different countries committed resources to ensuring that no child was missed during national immunisation programmes.

“It is unacceptable that one in five African children lacks access to life-saving vaccines, and this report is an urgent wake-up call to Africans of all walks of life and at every level. For Africa to achieve its full potential and secure a bright future, we must unite to ensure that every child on the continent receives the vaccines he or she needs to survive and thrive,” Moeti said.

The Minister of Health for Ethiopia, Dr. Kesetebirhan Admasu, called on his counterparts to commit time and resources to monitoring vaccination programmes to stamp out childhood killer disease.

Admasu said, “We can and must do more to protect all our children from devastating illnesses – not only because it is our responsibility to ensure healthier futures for our citizens, but also because it is a smart economic decision.

“This is the start of a new era of health on our continent, in which all countries commit to saving and improving children’s lives using one of the most powerful tools ever invented: vaccines. Africa’s unity on immunisation is our best hope for a better future,” said H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, African Union Commission Chairperson.

PUNCH.