Nasarawa committed to improved coverage of vaccine preventable diseases among children, engages stakeholders

By Takuruku Emmanuel, Lafia

Stakeholders in the health sector in Nasarawa state have resolved to increase coverage of vaccine preventable diseases to curb maternal mobility with emphasis on polio.

The decision was taken during a State Level Orientation for Community Dialogue and Town Announcers’ Training on Maternal Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) meeting held yesterday in Lafia.

Stating the objectives of the meeting, the Assistant State Health Educator, Ismaila Umar, said the meeting was organised to orient state supervisors on the key massages for community dialogue and Town announcers on Vitamin A and other Maternal Newborn Child Health Week (MNCHW) interventions and to give feedback on ACSM activities for Human Pappilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine introduction and polio campaign.

He said that the training was designed to equip supervisors and community dialogue town Announcers on how to effectively implement activities lined up ahead of the Maternal Newborn Child Health Week (MNCHW) in the state.

Giving an overview of Maternal Newborn Child Health Week (MNCHW) , the State Nutrition Officer, Salamatu Ciroma said that the MNCHW was introduced.by the Government of Nigeria at the 53rd National Council on Health Meeting aim at reducing maternal morbidity in the country.

She disclosed that Nasarawa state which attained 100 percent coverage of EBF in 2008 had dropped ( BPF dropped from 32.7 % to 23.1%) significantly from 100 percent to 80 percent going by the 2021 national surve, saying there was every need to step up mobilization to improve the coverage in the state.

The state nutrition officer said that Nasarawa survey results after several MNCHW and other interventions indicated that in 2021, 24/1 live births MICS, child mortality 42/1000 out of 1000 births 42 children died due to maternal mobility in the state.

Earlier in his opening remark, Director Health Education and Social Mobilization, Nasarawa State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NAPHDA), Mohammed Ibrahim, informed that meeting aim to get the commitment of stakeholders to be part of the state effort and development partners in the vaccine preventable diseases.

He said that government alone cannot achieve success in the fight against the child killer diseases without the genuine engagement of stakeholders in the state.

” In our effort in preventing our children, our young people, the leaders of tomorrow from these vaccine preventable diseases we invited all stakeholders to be part of this engagement to synergise together, fight together, work together to better the lives of our children between 0-5 years because in the next couple of days,we will have national immunization exercise which is coming ahead and we believe that we cannot achieve success without the involvement of stakeholders”

” We have identifed them to engage them and to sensitsie them and also to ask them to make commitment in mobilising our caregivers to come out and take these vaccine.These vaccines, HPV and the polio vaccine are safe, free and effective that is why we here” Ibrahim said.

“If you remember their was a time in 2000 Nigeria was declared a polio free nation but as time goes on we saw report of cases of measle again then the federal government in collaboration with development partners said their is need for us as stakeholders,or as a nation to come back again to our table and see these pocket of report of measles again and to fight them again so we will not go back to our old situation even though there no new case of polio in Nasarawa state now”

On his part, Nasarawa State Health Educator, Ishaya Amegwa stated that a child that is not vaccinated against the child-killer diseases stands the high risk of dying before his 50th birthday, saying why emphasis on polio is because it is a viral disease.