Kogi Government on Thursday urged residents of the state to support the government’s sensitisation and awareness campaign for polio vaccination for children across the state.
Dr Abubakar Yakubu, Executive Director, Kogi Primary Healthcare Development Agency (KSPHCDA), made the call during a Roadshow organised by the agency to sensitise residents of the state on polio immunisation.
Yakubu said that the roadshow was part of the Social Mobilisation aspects of the Outbreak Response (OBR) the agency was conducting across the state against the outbreak of vaccine-derived polio virus.
“The essence of the roadshow is to create adequate awareness.
“We have had the first and second round of the OBR and the third round would commence from Oct. 12 to Oct. 15.
“We hope that by the end of this third round, we will be on the verge of pushing out completely the remnants of polio virus from Kogi State,” he said.
The executive director added the State Government had also strengthened its routine immunisation aspects that would allow for Yellow Fever vaccination at the age of nine months.
He assured that with the arrangements the agency had put in place, any major outbreak should not be anticipated in the state for now.
“But notwithstanding, we are still doing our best in surveillance and monitoring of the process of the yellow fever outbreak in other neighbouring states,” he said.
He, therefore, enjoined stakeholders to mobilise the general public to participate in the immunisation campaign, and for parents to bring out their wards to nearby healthcare centres for immunisation.
Mr Yusuf Acheku, State Health Educator, Kogi Ministry of Health, said the first and second round of OBR were done from Aug. 31 to Sept. 3 and Sept. 19 to Sept. 22, respectively.
Acheku sai that the third round would be holding from Oct. 12 to Oct. 15.
He noted that they had reached out to all the key stakeholders including the traditional and religious leaders in order to ensure the success of the programme.
He said the polio vaccine was for children of between the age 0 to 5 years, saying it was free and safe. (NAN)