Tag Archives: polio

We’ve Had No Record Of Polio Outbreak In Seven Years – Oyo Government

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The Oyo State Government has revealed that efforts towards the eradication of polio in the state has yielded positive results and is still yielding fruits, adding that the state has not recorded any polio outbreak for the past seven years.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Azeez Adeduntan made this known over the weekend, during the flag off of the first round of the 2017 National Immunization Plus Days (NIPDs), held at the secretariat of Oyo west local Government, Ojongbodu, Oyo town.

Dr. Adeduntan stated that the State Government would scale up the collaboration between the state and local governments to ensure that immunization services reach every child in the state, stressing that the government is set to make immunization services the right of every child and not a privilege.

The Commissioner explained that the NIPDs campaign was not only on eradication of polio but on all vaccine preventable diseases, noting that children are most susceptible to infections during the early childhood years.

According to him, the National Immunization Plus Days (NIPDs), is a supplemental immunization campaign geared to ensure herd immunity among children under five years against poliomyelitis and towards the eradication of the disease in Nigeria.

Dr. Adeduntan urged mothers to make their children from ages 0-5 years available for the first round of immunization between March 25 and 28, 2017, explaining that it has been scientifically proven that immunization does not kill or affect children negatively against the backdrop of some cultural belief.

He called on all mothers to make sure they complete all stipulated immunization from birth for their children so that the efforts of the State government will not be fruitless.

“The intervention and target age group includes women of child bearing ages against tetanus and health promotion, children of 0-59 months for oral polio and all missed routine antigens and children of 0-11 months for due and missed routine antigens”, Dr. Adeduntan stressed.

 

Source: Channels TV

Sokoto to immunise 1.8m children against polio.

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Sokoto State Government says it is targeting no fewer than 1.8 million children, aged from 0 to 5 years in the ongoing four days polio immunisation in the state.

The State Deputy Governor, Ahaji Ahmed Aliyu, made the disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto on Sunday.

Aliyu, who is also the Chairman of the State’s Task Force on polio immunisation, said that the exercise, which commenced on Saturday, would end on Tuesday.

He said efforts were on to achive over 100 per cent coverage of the targeted children in all the 23 local government areas of the state.

The deputy governor said that the state government had distributed about 1.83 million doses of Oral Polio Vaccines (OPV) across the state.

Aliyu said that no fewer than 9,429 health personnel were conducting the exercise.

Also, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Alhaji Almustapha Othman, also told NAN that measures had been put in place to ensure the full acceptance of the exercise by parents.

Othman expressed happiness that parents in the state were now wholly accepting the exercise.

In his remarks, the Executive Secretary, State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Sani Labaran, also explained that social mobilisation of all the residents had been intensified.

This, Labaran said, was to shore up the acceptance of the OPV by the parents, adding that it was safe.

Polio: FG Releases N9.8bn For Polio; To Immunise 56m Children

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The Federal Government yesterday said it would release N9.8 billion for polio vaccines and other related activities, even as it unveiled plans to immunise over 56 million children by November 2016.

The N9.8 billion to be released is exclusive of the N6.5 billion approved by the Ministry of Finance when the polio crisis started. The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, who disclosed this at a briefing in Abuja, said the money would be used to execute the polio response plan developed by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, and its partners.

Adewole, however, raised alarm that there was high risk of further spread of the virus due to population movement within and around the states. The response plan, according to the Minister, include five rounds of polio campaign, three of which will be focused on 16 northern states and two to be conducted nationwide.

The campaigns, he noted, would be synchronized with the affected regions and provinces in Chad, Niger and Cameroun.

Read More:

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/polio-fg-releases-n9-8bn-polio-immunise-56m-children/

FG Confirms 2 Fresh Polio Cases In Borno

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The Minister of Health, Prof.Isaac Adewole, yesterday, confirmed an outbreak of wild polio virus, WPV, in Borno State. This is coming after Nigeria celebrated two years without a case of polio.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has directed the deployment of a national emergency response team, comprising government and partners to Borno State for immediate and robust polio vaccination campaign targeting vulnerable children to prevent the spread of the virus.

According to the minister, the outbreak affected two children from Gwoza and Jere Local Government areas of the state. He attributed the discovery and confirmation of the outbreak to the country’s strengthened surveillance due to improved accessibility made possible by the recent military action in liberating more communities in the North-Eastern part of the country.

The Minister said: “The detection of children paralyzed by polio shows that surveillance has increased with more access but it is a reminder that the country needs to remain vigilant and immunize all eligible children with oral polio vaccine until polio is completely eradicated worldwide.

“Our overriding priority right now is to rapidly boost immunity in the affected areas to ensure that no more children are affected by this terrible disease,” he added.

Read More:

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/fg-confirms-2-fresh-polio-cases-borno/

 

Lagos State Govt. To Commence 2016 Immunisation Campaign Tomorrow

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The Lagos State Government said it would commence the 2016 Measles Follow-Up Campaign on Thursday, Jan. 28, to run through Monday, Feb. 1.

 

 

Dr Jide Idris, the Commissioner for Health, stated this on Tuesday in Lagos during a media briefing. He said that healthcare providers at all levels had been trained to ensure the success of this year’s campaign. Idris said that the measles campaign would last for five days in wards and communities.

 

 

“We have mounted 521 fixed posts in health facilities and 2, 216 temporary posts in public/ private schools, churches, mosques, town halls, bus stops, motor parks and markets, where immunisation will be provided.

 

 

I appeal to parents and caregivers to ensure that their children between ages nine months up to five years are taken to the health posts for the vaccination.

 

 

The service is free; the vaccine is safe and effective and is to be administered to children irrespective of their previous immunisation status.

 

 

Though the duration of immunity conferred by measles antigen is lifelong and it is 85 per cent efficient,” he said. Idris explained that measles was one of the six childhood killer diseases that could be prevented via complete and effective vaccination.

 

 

“Children do not need to die from vaccine preventable diseases such as tuberculosis, pertussis, tatanus, diphtheria, poliomyelitis and yellow fever. Every child is expected to complete the routine immunisation schedule before the age of one to boost the immunity of the child against killer infections.

 

 

“The symptoms of measles infection include fever, running nose, sneezing, ulcer of the mouth, skin rashes that starts from the head and spreads to other parts of the body.

 

 

Complication of measles infection is swelling of the brain tissues, ear and chest infection, blindness and even death.

 

 

It is therefore, crucial for us to prevent children from this deadly disease by ensuring they receive a dose of measles immunisation during this campaign period,” Idris said.

 

 

 

(NAN)

WHO Removes Nigeria from Polio-Endemic List

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World Health Organisation announced on Friday that polio is no longer endemic in Nigeria.

Polio, which can cause lifelong paralysis, has now been stopped nearly everywhere in the world following a 25-year concerted international effort. Polio remains endemic in only 2 countries – Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A statement released by the organisation read: “This is the first time that Nigeria has interrupted transmission of wild poliovirus, bringing the country and the African region closer than ever to being certified polio-free.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), the public-private partnership leading the effort to eradicate polio, called this a ‘historic achievement’ in global health. Nigeria has not reported a case of wild poliovirus since 24 July 2014, and all laboratory data have confirmed a full 12 months have passed without any new cases.

 

As recently as 2012, Nigeria accounted for more than half of all polio cases worldwide. Since then, a concerted effort by all levels of government, civil society, religious leaders and tens of thousands of dedicated health workers have resulted in Nigeria successfully stopping polio. More than 200 000 volunteers across the country repeatedly immunized more than 45 million children under the age of 5 years, to ensure that no child would suffer from this paralysing disease. Innovative approaches, such as increased community involvement and the establishment of Emergency Operations Centres at the national and state level, have also been pivotal to Nigeria’s success.

 

Nigeria has made remarkable progress against polio, but continued vigilance is needed to protect these gains and ensure that polio does not return. Immunization and surveillance activities must continue to rapidly detect a potential re-introduction or re-emergence of the virus.

After 3 years have passed without a case of wild poliovirus on the continent, official ‘certification’ of polio eradication will be conducted at the regional level in Africa.”

 

Reacting to the news, Dr Ado Muhammad, Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Nigeria, said “We Nigerians are proud today. With local innovation and national persistence, we have beaten polio. We know our vigilance and efforts must continue in order to keep Nigeria polio-free.” 

Sultan Urges Nigerians To Support Efforts To Eradicate Polio

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The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, on Saturday, urged Nigerians to support the current efforts by federal and state governments, as well as other stakeholders to eradicate polio in Nigeria.

The Sultan made the call at the inauguration of the four-day Injectable Polio Vaccination campaign organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the Gidan-Igwai area of Sokoto city in the state.

Represented by the District Head of Hamma’Ali, Alhaji Bello Abubakar, the Sultan said “the polio vaccine has been certified to be safe for children.

“This exercise will certainly boost the last minute efforts to wipe out the debilitating disease from Nigeria soon and have Nigeria certified polio-free.

“We should not endanger the lives of our children by refusing them to be administered with the polio vaccine.

“The Injectable Polio Vaccine is very safe for children, just like the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV).’’

The Chairman of Sokoto North Local Government , Alhaji Aminu Ibrahim, pledged to do everything possible to ensure that targeted number of children were immunised.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the exercise is being conducted in Sokoto North, Sokoto South and Wamakko local government areas of the state.

No fewer than 240,000 children aged between 3-59 months are being targeted in the three councils.

The WHO had set up 411 health camps for the purpose of the exercise, each with no fewer than 10 health personnel, including community and religious leaders.

A NAN correspondent who monitored the exercise in parts of Wamakko, Sokoto North and Sokoto South local governments reports that it had taken off successfully, with high turnout of mothers presenting their children for the vaccination.

A cross section of the mothers also commended WHO and other stakeholders for organising the exercise. (NAN)