The Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, has disclosed that over two million children aged under five years have been immunised during the supplemental immunisation campaign under the polio eradication programme in the country.
Abiodun said this on Wednesday at a tree planting ceremony to commemorate the African Region for Eradication of Wild Polio at the State Secretariat, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.
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He further stated that measures were being put in place to stop the transmission of 17 wild polio viruses detected in the state.
“It is important to remember that the war against polio was not won on a silver platter. We cannot afford to lose our guard; we must sustain innovative approaches like increasing community involvement and establishing emergency operation centres at national and state levels,” he said.
The governor maintained that health challenges prevented personal growth and affected a country’s economic development as a population faced with health issues could hardly contribute to the economic well-being of the society.
Abiodun observed that although Nigeria accounted for more than half of the world’s polio cases in 2012, concerted efforts by governments, civil society organisations, religious leaders and other stakeholders resulted in the eradication of the virus in the country through immunisation.
He noted that to sustain the effort and maintain the gains recorded so far, his administration would increase immunisation and surveillance, scale up the process in the 20 local government areas and increase funding of the outreach across the 236 wards, including the hard-to-reach communities where health facilities were lacking.
The governor also said government would make vaccines available in all the primary health centres and provide the necessary equipment to maintain the potency of the vaccines at all times.
He expressed his appreciation to the federal government, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF) and other stakeholders for their constant technical and financial support to improve the health of children in the state.
The Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, also appreciated the sacrifice of people who gave their lives in the course of eradicating the virus and urged residents of the state to join hands with those in the field to contain the disease.
