Report by ALI MUHAMMAD RABIU; Editing by BASIRAT MEMUDU
Kwara State government in collaboration with Development Partners, has commenced the second round of routine immunization exercise of 238,000 children across the state.
The Executive Secretary of the state Primary Health Care Development Agency, Professor Nusirat Elelu stated this while speaking with newsmen in Ilorin.
She said the exercise is meant to further strengthen and scale up health services, particularly to hard to reach, underserved and zero dose children.
According to her, the exercise comprises the second round of the Big Catch-up vaccination campaigns planned for Ifelodun, Baruten and Ilorin East.
Professor Elelu, explained that the Local Immunization Plus Days and the Big Catch up are being implemented to ramp up immunization coverage, rapidly decrease zero dose and partially immunized children so as to increase population immunity through vaccinations.
The Executive Secretary stressed that immunization is one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions of all times, adding that it has prevented millions of deaths and ill health every year.
She noted that the intensification exercise would adopt an integrated approach, adding that the combination of vaccines with other health interventions such as vitamin A supplementation helps to reduce the likelihood of children dying from most of the childhood killer diseases.
Professor Elelu called on all stakeholders, service providers, community leaders, especially, fathers, mothers and other caregivers, to ensure that their children are immunized during this period.
The routine immunization intensification targets about 160,000 children while the big catch up campaign targets about 78,000 children.
