Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
The Borno State Government, supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF, has commenced vaccination of 1.2 million people against yellow fever in the state.
The exercise which target displaced persons at their camps across 57 wards in 25 local governments of the state, runs from Monday 5 to February 14, 2018, the WHO and UNICEF said in a joint statement, in Maiduguri, on Wednesday.
“More than 3,000 WHO-trained volunteers, including senior supervisors, monitors, healthcare workers and community leaders, will immunize 1.2 million IDPs aged from 9 months to 45 years at designated health facilities,” the international organisations said.
UNICEF Nigeria Representative, Mohammed Fall, said large children in the volatile Borno State may be deprived of life-saving right should they miss out of the vaccination exercise.
His WHO counterpart, Dr. Wondimagegnehu Alemu, said the exercise was of “high public health importance to protect most-at-risk populations living in high-risk condition” though Borno has not recorded any outbreak of Yellow fever.