Gombe: Over 800,000 Children, to be Immunised Against Polio.
By Jameel Abubakar
Gombe State Government is targeting Eight hundred and eighty-nine thousand children under the ages of five to be vaccinated against polio across eleven local government areas state.
The State Deputy Governor, Dr Manassah Daniel Jatau, disclosed this at the launch of a four-day Second Phase of Polio Outbreak Response (OBR) campaign held at Gidan Magani Maternity in Gombe metropolis.
He enjoined all Chairmen of the Local Government Task Force on Immunization and Primary Health Care Directorates to ensure that all eligible children in their respective LGAs are fully identified and vaccinated.
The Deputy Governor reiterated government resolve to actively participate in supportive supervision and monitoring of the exercise with a view to overcoming any unforeseen challenge that may arise in the courses of the campaign.
“To succeed there is a compelling need for all of us and other stakeholders to engage continuously in these vaccination campaigns to eradicate Polio from our environment as was the case of the dreaded Smallpox”, he explained.
Also speaking, the State Commissioner of Health Dr Habu Dahiru, represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Alhaji Musa Umar Filiya assured the state government’s is fully commitment to provide quality health care to people of the state particularly the targeted children.
He appreciated the Traditional and Community leaders for fully supporting the fight against preventable diseases, calling on the parents, guardians and the media to continue to support the campaigns to ensure safety of the people, especially the children under the age of five.
In separate remarks, the Mai Kaltungo, Engr. Saleh Mohammed and the Senior District Head of Gombe, Alhaji Abdulkadir Abubakar commended the efforts of the present administration in the state for ensuring the provision of quality healthcare to the people especially in the area of vaccination.
Presenting an update of the vaccination campaign activities, Executive Secretary of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Shuaibu Abdulrahaman explained that, the January OBR Response, has witnessed tremendous successes compared to that of September last year.
He explained that during the January OBR, with a target population of 816, 272 eligible children, 815, 619 eligible children were immunized giving a state coverage of 100% with 5% vaccine wastage rate and no LGA had less than 90% coverage.
He added that there was a decrease in the trend of non-compliance of which the 21 pending households involving 38 children were recorded.
In their Goodwill messages, Development Partners, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Alhaji Yahaya Ahmed and other stakeholders in the health sector stressed continued collaboration with the state government towards eradicating polio and other preventable diseases.
