Gombe To Immunise 817,300 Under-5 Children against Polio

Over 817,300 under five children will benefit from the second phase of the Polio Outbreak Response in Gombe State.

This was disclosed on Friday, by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Manassah Jatau, he said that the immunisation would cater to children across the 11 local government areas in the state within four days.

He explained that to achieve this, all Chairmen of the Local Government Task Force on Immunisation and Primary Health Care would ensure that eligible children in their respective LGAs were fully identified and vaccinated.

Jatau further said, they should actively participate, monitor and overcome any challenge that may arise during the exercise, adding that they must not fail.

“To succeed there is a compelling need for all of us and other stakeholders to engage continuously in these vaccination campaigns to totally eradicate Polio from our environment as was the case of the dreaded Smallpox.”

The Commissioner for Health Dr. Habu Dahiru, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Alh. Musa Filiya pointed out that the government was fully committed to the provision of quality health care to its residents.

While calling on the parents, guardians, and the media to continue to support the campaign towards ensuring the safety of the people especially the children within the set age, Dahiru urged for more support.

On his part, Executive Secretary Dr. Shuaibu Abdulrahaman, while presenting an update on the vaccination campaign activities, revealed that the January outbreak response has witnessed tremendous success in comparison to September last year’s coverage.

Abdulrahaman attributed the successes to the good commitment of traditional rulers, strong coordination of health workers, intense partnership with NGOs, and full attendance of participants at the training.

According to him, “During the January OBR 1, with a target population of 816,272 eligible children, 815, 619 eligible children were immunised giving a state coverage of 100% with 5% vaccine wastage rate. No LGA had coverage of less than 90%.”