Christopher Nwodom, the Immunisation Officer in Ebonyi State Ministry of Health, has said the State Government needs to take full responsibility for immunisation programmes to improve the Immunisation status of the State.
Nwodom who stated this while interacting with Journalists in Abakaliki on the current immunisation status of the State, lauded Governor Francis Nwifuru for making substantial investments in the health sector by providing quality healthcare equipment to the General Hospitals in the State.
He however emphasised that Government should also take on the responsibility of funding the immunisation programme as some of the partners were already closing out from the State.
Nwodom thanked UNICEF for funding Immunisation programmes and training of health workers in the State, explaining that the Ministry had deployed different strategies to ensure that before the next quarter of 2025, the Immunization status of Ebonyi would increase from 85% to 100%.
He noted that as a result of their interventions, two local governments, Ikwo and Ohaukwu, where children with zero OPVC were recorded recently, had been covered through what he described as BIG CATCH-UP CAMPAIGN.
“Ebonyi is doing well in terms of routine Immunization. Between January this December, we have reached 85% coverage hopefully before December 31st we will reach 90% because we have tried as much as we could to ensure that children under the Immunization level are captured just like we just concluded the BIG CATCH- -UP CAMPAIGN in two LGAs which we conducted in Ohaukwu and Ikwo local government.
“These two local government areas are where we recorded zero children who have not received OPVc zero for the first time. OPVc zero are those children who have not received OPVc for ones and it’s a problem if a child is deprived from receiving OPVc.
“We have unimmunized children in these two council areas. You asked what brought the unimmunized children. The reason some parents don’t take their children to health facilities for Immunization is because of the rumour of covid 19 vaccination that it is to reduce the life of people.
“To improve Immunization in the State, we need government involvement. The government should own the program because if paraventure all these developmental partners leave, it will be difficult to sustain. So, the Government should take up the responsibility of sponsoring Immunisation and other health programmes which are supported by partners”, he said.
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