Tuesday, 19 November 2013

Polio Immunisation Exercise: Sokoto Records 453 Rejections In 2 Days



A total of 453 cases of rejection have been recorded in the past two days in the ongoing 10th round of polio immunisation in Illela Local Government Area of Sokoto State, an official has said.
The Director of Health of the local government, Hajiya Amina Jibril, disclosed this yesterday in Illela, while briefing a team of journalists monitoring the exercise.
“These cases were recorded between Saturday and Sunday in 347 households across the area. Over 60 per cent of these rejections have been resolved and all the children hitherto missed, had been fully immunised,’’ she said.
Jibril said over 46,000 eligible children between 0 to five years, are being targeted across the local government during the four-day exercise.
According to her, about sixty per cent of the targeted children have been immunised, since the exercise began on Saturday.
“We are also hopeful that the exercise would record about 95 per cent success by Tuesday. We have also planned a mop up exercise between Saturday to Tuesday next week to cover all the children who will expectedly be missed,” she added.
Jibril said the state government has provided 115,520 doses of polio vaccines to the local government, adding that 492 health personnel are administering the vaccine in 11 wards of the area.
“We have some of them immunising children on house to house basis, while there are fixed and special teams,” she said.
The director said the local government was providing incentives to encourage parents to allow their children to be immunised.
“These include plastic plates and cups, noodles, detergents and toiletries, among others; we are also doling out other items to the children, like sweets and biscuits,” she added.
Also commenting, chairman of the local government, Alhaji Garba Sabongari said the council earmarked N900,000 for logistics to ensure the success of the exercise.
The chairman assured parents that the polio vaccine was safe, adding: “It doesn’t have any contraceptives, it is safe and healthy.
“Parents should safeguard the lives of their children by allowing them to be immunised against polio and other child-killer diseases,” she said.

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