Rumour linking monkey pox to immunization caused low turnout – NPHCDA

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has said Bayelsa State performed poorly in 2017 vaccination programme due to false alarm raised by people that vaccination was the remote cause of monkey pox.

The Programme Manager in the agency, Dr Okposen Bassey, said this yesterday when a delegation of the NPHCDA visited the Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council in Yenagoa, adding that the false alarm scared most parents from providing their children for immunization. 

Speaking, the Chairman of Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council, King Alfred Diete-Spiff, stressed the need for state government and traditional institutions to partner to reverse the statistics.

Also, the Director of Primary Healthcare Department in the state’s Ministry of Health, Dr Taremobowei Egberepou, said the state government had started working on how to reverse the trend.