Polio: Jigawa, UNICEF set to vaccinate 1.2m Children in 4 Days

From Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse

Ahead of the forthcoming Polio Immunisation exercise, the Jigawa state primary healthcare development Agency (PHCDA) in collaboration with UNICEF have set the target of 1.2 million children to be vacinated against Polio.

This was disclosed by the permanent secretary in the state Primary Healthcare Development Agency, (PHCDA) Dr Kabiru Ibrahim in an exclusive interview

The permanent secretary explained that “All is set for the Jigawa state government through PHCDA to vaccinate 1.2million children of 0- 5 years against Polio across the 27 local government areas of the state”.

Dr. Kabiru Ibrahim explained that the agency recruited over 9,180 ad-hoc staff who were grouped in to 3060 teams and spread to 287 political wards of the state to conduct the exercise.

According to him “The exercise would be flagged-off on Saturday and it would last for five days. Four days is for the real exercise and one day is designed for mop up to ensure no single children is left behind”.

According to him, “We have enough dosage of the vaccines which have been despatched to all the 27 local government areas with all necessary materials for the kickoff of the exercise all over at the same time”.

“The permanent secretary noted that Jigawa and Nigeria have been polio free for years. But the immunization exercise followed a discovery of an environmental polio sample in some states neighboring to us (Jigawa) who are also conducting this same exercise.
That is why we (in Jigawa) also conducted the same exercise to provide additional protection against the polio disease on our children”.

He added that they have constituted 3060 teams with three persons in each of the team that would be going from house to house in addition to some designed centers and all public health facilities in the state to immunize the targeted 1.2 million 0-5 years children in the state”.

He therefore warned people to avoid coming up with any condition before accepting any immunization be it polio or the routine immunization.
He also called on parents and care providers to bring their children out to receive the vaccines to improve their protection against the disease.

Our reporter in the state gathered that there are over 556,750 children who have not received one single dose of vaccination they were expected to have received, these are referred to as zero dose children.

This was contained in a paper presented by Mr. Michael Banda, Officer-in-Charge, UNICEF Field Office Kano at a day Media/QAP briefing and Orientation on polio campaign organized by UNICEF Kano field office for journalist of Jigawa, Kano and Katsina state.
The paper indicated “such children inexorably are vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases, including poliomyelitis. This is unacceptable and must be tackled frontally”.

Mr Michael Banda maintained that “Not only is polio vaccination crucial, but all routine vaccinations are also critical for children’s survival. “We must all work together to strengthen routine immunization services and ensure that all children under five receive all vaccines, including the polio vaccine”.

“If all children get vaccinated and receive all the vaccines they need to receive, they would no longer be at risk of contracting polio, with attendant debilitating consequences, but they would rather have received the immunity which will protect them against vaccine-preventable diseases. Immunization has been proven to be the most cost-effective protection against vaccine-preventable diseases”, Banda emphasis.