The Kwara State government says it is ready to do all that it takes to strengthen routine immunisation and make the state Polio free.
Kayode Alabi, the state deputy governor, disclosed this on Friday in Ilorin at a meeting of the State Task Force on Immunisation held in his office.
Alabi in a statement by his chief press secretary, Bunmi Adedoyin, enjoins members of the State Task Force to support government in kicking polio out of the state and strengthen routine immunisation to prevent reoccurrence after clearing the state of the circulating polio virus.
The deputy Governor, equally challenged members of the Task Force to join hands with the government to back up the immunisation teams at all levels to ensure no child is denied the opportunity of being vaccinated.
According to him, the Nigeria’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation had achieved slow growth in coverage in the last few years despite huge investments by governments and development partner agencies.
Alabi explains that in 2015 alone, six out of every ten children representing about 4.3m were not fully vaccinated, adding that with concerted efforts the last case of the Wild Polio Virus so far in the Country was in 2016.
Adding that as the country is set to become polio free, sadly the state has been having recurrent outbreak of another type of the polio virus, an indication of low immunity among the children.
Alabi had while flagging off the campaign, says the state is committed to improve Primary Health care service delivery by strengthening the state Primary Health care Development Agency to rid the state of polio and other vaccine preventable diseases among others.
The Deputy Governor stated categorically that the vaccines is safe, free and has no over dosage for all eligible children and would be taken from house to house in nine local government areas.
He urges all mothers, caregivers, schools and other custodians of children of zero to five years to make them available for vaccination.
Olatunde Rasaq Owolabi , chairman, Kwara State House Committee on Health, says the House would do the needful to eradicate polio and ensure clean environment in the state.
Owolabi enjoins the people to always obey the sanitation law and take active part in the cleaning of their environment.
Abimbola Folorunsho, executive secretary of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency, a medical doctor stressed the need to put in place the Task Force to ensure full compliance with the immunisation to eradicate polio completely in the state.
Folorunsho noted that environmental sanitation is key to the success of the exercise.
She highlights some of the challenges facing the agency to including not having access to the children especially in the rural areas due to lack of road, shortage of skilled personnel and lack of community ownership.
SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin
