Health
MEDECINES Sans Frontieres (MSF) known as Doctors Without Borders, is partnering Borno Government on a measles vaccination campaign for children in Maiduguri and the environs.
The Borno Field Communication Officer of MSF, Abdulkareem Yakubu, said this in a statement in Maiduguri on Monday.
Yakubu said the five-day exercise was in response to rising cases of measles in Maiduguri and environs.
He said the campaign for children between six months to nine years was expected to reach 103,823 children living in Gwange Ward and 277,395 children in informal camps in Bolori Ward in Maiduguri.
“MSF teams are also supporting the state government to vaccinate 34,290 children in Khaddamari, a town close to Zabarmari, from where a large number of measles cases have emerged, ” Yakubu said.
He noted that MSF started receiving children with measles in December 2020 in Gwange Paediatric Hospital in Maiduguri.
Yakubu noted that access to healthcare including vaccination had been difficult for some communities outside Maiduguri due to security situations.
He quoted MSF Head of Mission in Nigeria, David Therond, saying that when critical routine vaccinations to save lives become difficult due to security reasons, there is a need for such a catch-up vaccination campaign to be organized.
“To protect the community from COVID-19 during the vaccination campaign, MSF is providing 40,000 face masks to the staff doing the vaccination as well as to the mothers of children who are being immunized, ” Yakubu said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that MSF has been in Borno since 2014 running health projects in Maiduguri, Gwoza, Pulka, and Rann. ( NAN)
– MAY 03, 2021 @ 16:05 GMT
Tags: MSF partners Borno govt on measles vaccination campaign
