Dr. Idowu Audu, who is the Deputy Incident Manager of National Polio Emergency Operations, said on Saturday that Nigeria has been getting 70% of the world’s polio vaccines but hasn’t seen any real effects.
Audu said at a meeting of experts in Ilorin that it was sad that even though the country was getting most of the world’s polio vaccines, the virus was still affecting its children.
It was at the Third Quarter Review/Engagement Meeting of the Kwara State Traditional Leaders’ Council Committee on Health that he said the illness had come back and was spreading, mostly in northern states.
Audu said that only in Zamfara does polio affect about 35% of people, and that people not following the rules is one thing that is stopping Nigeria from eradicating polio completely.
“Cases of not following the rules are buried and hidden.” “This is some of the stuff that makes it hard for vaccine programs to work in this country,” he said.
Audu asked the traditional leaders to work with the government to make sure that everyone in the country gets a polio, measles, and whooping cough vaccine every year.
The Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Nusirat Elelu, spoke at the meeting and said that it was to bring together traditional institutions and other important people.
“This meeting is to make sure that everyone is fully involved in taking ownership of vaccine programs in the community,” she said.
Elelu, who was accompanied by Dr. Michael Oguntoye, the Agency’s Director of Primary Healthcare System, said that trained healthcare workers were used in the state’s vaccine programs.
People in the state were asked to let their children get the life-saving protection.
It was pointed out by the Executive Secretary that there are still some stubborn people who make it hard to vaccinate everyone.
She did say again, though, that the state government was determined to work with religious and traditional leaders to get rid of polio in Kwara and the whole country.
In his speech, Mr. Ademola Enikanselu, the Program Officer of the Chigari Foundation in Kwara, asked traditional leaders and partners to keep an eye on how many people get vaccinated in their own communities.
“We need to keep track of the progress toward immunization and find places where things could be better,” he said.
Enikanselu also told them to report problems and issues with vaccine shortages in their neighborhood.
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