As measles immunization exercise gets underway in Oyo state, govt allays citizens’ vaccination concerns
Oyo state government today announced it is engaging 80,351 individuals to mobilize citizens for the ongoing measles immunization exercise.
In a statement issued this afternoon by the state government and made available to HealthNews.NG, the government said it is aiming to ensure that all targeted individuals are immunised and those it is engaging would serve as House to House mobilizers, facilitators, town announcers and social mobilizers.
The on-going 2018 measles immunization is holding across the state and would hold from March 15 to 27, 2018 across the 33 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and their LCDAs. The exercise will be in two phases with the first phase covering 17 local government areas and the second phase will cover the remaining 16 LGAs.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Azeez Adeduntan, officially flagged off the 2018 measles vaccination campaign at Ibadan North Local Government area. Speaking at the event, Adeduntan expressed the commitment of the state government to ensuring that children in between the ages of 9months to 5years do not die prematurely, noting that this propelled the state government to engage massive mobilizers for the 2018 measles vaccination campaign to reduce maternal mortality and infant mortality rates.
Measles, the commissioner said, is a very creeping disease which causes pneumonia, rashes, redness of eyes and lips, rough skin, catarrh, and loss of appetite for children, saying that it is important for mothers and carers to get their children immunized.
Adeduntan also allayed the fears of mothers over the rumour that measles vaccine and immunization kill as well as affect the mental attitude of the underage children, saying that immunization is very important for the well-being of the children with no side effect.
He enjoined mothers and carers in the State to cooperate with health officials to immunize their children in all primaries health care centres and other designated centres assigned for measles immunization exercise within the state to ensure that no child is left behind during the exercise.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary, Primary Health Care Board, Dr. Waheed Lanre Abass, said that the board has deployed more than Eighty Thousands individuals to serve as facilitators, town announcers and social mobilizers towards the campaign to cover every nook and cranny of the state, stressing that the issue of security would be taken care of during the exercise to ensure that children have free access to the measles vaccine.