Over ninety-eight thousand under-five children have been immunized against polio in Tudun Wada local government area, Kano.
The primary healthcare coordinator, Alhaji Habibu Musa Sumaila stated this shortly after the completion of the exercise.
He used the opportunity to thank the traditional leaders, parents and other stakeholders for their support towards the success recorded in the just concluded as well as previous campaigns in the local government.
Tudun Wada local government caretaker chairman, Dr Umar Isah Rugu-Rugu revealed that the local government would collaborate with the state government to improve healthcare delivery in the area.
He urged husbands to ensure that their wives and underage children attend clinics for anti-natal and routine immunisation.
Meanwhile, in Rano LGA out of the fifty-eight thousand seven hundred and thirty targeted under five children, over fifty-three thousand nine hundred and twenty-two received the polio immunization.
The head of the medical department, Rano Ibrahim Shu’aibu attributed the success to the support of the district head, village and ward heads, imams, the local government social mobilisation committee, politicians as well as the residents of the area.
Receiving the report, the local government Interim Management Officer Rano, Professor Dahiru Sani Rurum described the exercise as a huge success which would serve as a major catalyst in improving the health and well-being of children from 0-5 years.
He assured the people of Rano that, the present administration under the leadership of Engineer Abba Kabir Yusuf has prioritized health and is working assiduously to ensure quality healthcare delivery services across the state.
A parent in Burum Burum ward Tudun Wada LGA, Malam Nurudeen Jibril attributed the success of the April 2024 Polio immunization (nOPV2) to the hard work and determination of UNICEF in Nigeria.
According to him, in the last few years, the fund has worked tirelessly in advocating for immunization which has changed his mindset about misinformation surrounding the activity, saying that his children received the vaccine during the house-to-house campaign.
Another Mother in Rurum Tsohon Gari Rano, Hasiya Mukaila said she was motivated by the advocacy for immunization through Radio jingles and programs supported by the state government and partners, that’s why she visits the PHC for anti-natal and routine immunization.
One of the government’s partners in the programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), pledged to give the state government all the necessary support to surpass the target.
The Officer in charge of UNICEF Kano Field office, Mr Micheal Banda, during a media briefing and orientation on the polio campaign organized by UNICEF in collaboration with the Kano State Primary Healthcare Development Agency maintained that eradicating polio is a task very possible.
He pointed that UNICEF would continue to support the government to strengthen the primary healthcare system, under the primary healthcare under one roof (PHCUR), policy of the federal government including the goal to have at least one functional PHC in every ward in Nigeria.
He emphasized the critical role of the media and social media, saying that managing misinformation and vaccine hesitancy for polio and the overall vaccine is crucial in Nigeria to stop the outbreak.
“As the data show in three states of Kano Katsina and Jigawa we have supported by the UNICEF Kano field office we have over 556,750 children who have not received one single dose of vaccine they should have received.These are referred to as zero dose children.Such children inexorably are vulnerable to vaccine preventable diseases,including poliomyelitis.This is unacceptable and must be tackled frontally”.
Earlier, Kano state Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, flagged- off the April 2024 Polio immunization programme (nOPV2) at Ungogo Local Government Area, expressed optimism that Kano will reach its target of immunizing about 3.9 million children during the exercise across the 44 Local Government Areas of the state.
Represented by the state Commissioner of Health, Dr. Abubakar Labaran Yusuf, he appealed to parents of under-five-year-old children in the state to make their children available for immunization, insisting that the routine immunization will eradicate polio from the state with the full cooperation of parents.
KHADIJAH ALIYU
