Ondo kicks off immunisation for 350,000 children

Meningitis vaccination used to illustrate the story [Photo Credit: communit.com]

The Ondo State Government has commenced a routine immunisation for about 350,000 children across the 18 local government areas of the state.

It said the exercise was targeted at reducing child mortality and morbidity to the barest minimum.

The Commissioner for Health, Wahab Adegbenro, while speaking on the exercise on Monday, said the three-day special immunisation outreach services would commence at the 33 primary health care facilities in Akoko South West Local Government Area.

Mr Adegbenro said that the outreach was taken to the council because of its sub-optimal performance in routine immunisation for the months of January and February 2018, compared to other councils in the state.

The commissioner explained that the exercise is free in all the 583 primary health facilities across the councils.

“A minimum of one fixed session is conducted per facility per week while a minimum of four outreach sessions is conducted per facility per month,” he said.

He listed the routine immunisation schedule per newborns, six weeks of life, 10 weeks of life, 14 weeks of life and nine months of life, which were the only doses of yellow fever and measles vaccines.

Mr Adegbenro stated that Vitamin A supplements were administered to children, while the ministry also participated in all Supplemental Immunisation Exercises (SIEs), the ongoing National Immunisation Plus Days (NIPDs) just to mention a few.

“Using Penta 3 vaccine as a yardstick, a total of 14,484 children were vaccinated in Ondo State in the month of February 2018, which is about 89 per cent of the monthly target population,” he noted.

“The state coverage for the recently held measles vaccination campaign is 108 per cent, making up 735,168 children vaccinated.”

He disclosed that the state had paid N17 million and N10 million counter-part funds and another N12 million for measles campaign.

“As a responsible and responsive government, we shall continue to promote and support the coverage of immunisation services in our dear state, thereby keeping Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (VPDs) away from Ondo State,” Mr Adegbenro added.