Health
THE Enugu State Government says it is targeting about one million children aged one year to five years for Meningitis A vaccination throughout the state.
Dr George Ugwu, Executive Secretary of Enugu State Primary Health Care Development Agency (ENS-PHCDA), made this known at a news conference on Friday in Enugu.
Ugwu said that the massive Meningitis A vaccination which is for six days would be held between Dec. 6 and Dec. 11, adding that there might be a mop-up exercise of additional two days if need be.
He said that the ENS-PHCDA in collaboration with National Primary Health Care Development Agency, UNICEF and other partners had trained 495 health personnel teams for the conduct of the exercise.
According to him, the Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi would do the inauguration on Tuesday, Dec. 10, at Abakpa Primary Healthcare Centre in Enugu East Local Government Area.
“It will be massive as we have sensitised all stakeholders to it since preventive medicine is cheaper and better than curative medicine.
“We are going to penetrate all nooks and crannies of the state starting with all markets in the state from tomorrow, Saturday, and then to all religious centres on Sunday.
“We have informed and collaborated with the State Ministry of Education to ensure all schools have classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week to allow us reach the children.
“We are calling on parents and caregivers to avail their children’s teachers their immunisation cards for proper recording.
“We are also setting up special outreach centres in hard-to-reach areas with difficult terrain or remoteness, so that we can catch them and ensure that no child is left out in this statewide exercise,’’ he said.
Ugwu noted that the state agency had before now embarked on massive sensitisation on the Meningitis A vaccination programme and had mobilised all hands on deck to ensure a huge success.
“We are targeting over 100 per cent coverage to surpass the 97 per cent coverage we had in the last statewide immunisation on Measles that ended on Dec. 3 earlier this week.
“We will continue to use local language in radio and televisions jingles to herald the exercise as well as newspapers to let our people know the need to vaccinate their children against meningitis,’’ he said.
The executive secretary, however, thanked Gov. Ugwuanyi for approving and joining immunisation-partners in the state in providing the vaccination package.
“This is a Christmas package for our children from the governor and for them all to remain healthy,’’ he added. (NAN)
– Dec. 6, 2019 @ 18:29 GMT |
Tags: Enugu State targets 1 million children for Meningitis A vaccination
