GOVERNOR Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State says his administration is committed to ensure high population immunity as a deterrent against any re-infection of polio virus.

Ugwuanyi stated this during the 2nd round of 2018 National Immunisation Plus Days for Children under the age of 0 to 5 on Monday in Enugu.

The governor, who was represented by his Deputy, Mrs Cecelia Ezeilo, said that since 2017 no case of polio has been recorded in any part of Nigeria including Enugu state.

He added that the state was committed to the full realisation of routine Immunisation coverage for better healthy condition of children in all the 17 area councils.

Ugwuanyi called on all mothers to immunise their children and as well inform others who were yet to bring out their wards for the exercise, adding that it is transferable from one child to another.

“If you know anyone who is yet to immunise her child, please do not fail to inform her because immunising your own child is not enough until every child around you is immunised, then you can be sure of its complete eradication,” he said.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Fintan Ekochin, represented by the state Health Administrator, Dr Chukwuma Ani, said that the governor has steered up the health system for the benefit of all.

Ekochin added that in spite of the scarcity of funds, Ugwuanyi was seriously making sure that all health facilities across the state were getting fund for better health service delivery.

He urged every mother to use this opportunity to immunise their children to avoid health complication on them.

Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the state Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Hillary Agbo, thanked the governor for supporting the agency to record positive change.

Agbo stressed that stakeholders have collaborated to conduct routine immunisation to cover the entire population.

He added that health workers in the state have been trained with the support of United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF), noting that health workers are inhibited to move to all the hinterland.

Mr Philip Ugwueze, the state Coordinator, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, congratulated Ugwuanyi for providing N15 million for the support of the exercise.

Ugwueze lauded the state for involving senior health officials in monitoring and supervising all the activities of the exercise.

He however said that the agency was facing challenges of eradicating Wild Polio Virus from the country in the nearest future.

Dr Ada Errinne, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Coordinator in the state, urged mothers and private school owners to allow their children and pupils, respectively, to be administered with the vaccine as this would keep the children safe from disease.

Erinne said that people should not entertain any fear as the health workers responsible for the immunisation have been trained by WHO, urging parents to bring out their children for the exercise. (NAN)

– Jul. 2, 2018 @ 18:05 GMT |