Health
By Nnedinma Okeke
THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), National Orientation Agency (NOA) have held a one-day zonal media orientation for states within the UNICEF Enugu Field Office implementing the forthcoming Intergrated Measles Campaign.
These States include: Anambra, Benue, Cross River, Enugu and Kogi States respectively.
The event, held at Dannic Hotel, Enugu was used to sensitize Media organisations from the aforementioned States on their key roles and importance in the forthcoming Measles vaccination Campaign in their respective states.
Its objectives were to strengthen partnership toward success of the campaign, define collectively dissemination targets, unite on key messages to disseminate, and articulate on how to respond to rumors and disinformation.
The UNICEF Social and Behavioural Change (SBC) Specialist, Dr Hilary Ozoh facilitated discussions on each State’s level of preparedness of the forthcoming Measles vaccination campaign, visualising each State’s target population and quantity of vaccines received.
Anambra State with a number of 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs), and 330 wards, received 1,227,133 doses of Measles vaccine, targeting a population of 1,168,679 eligible children for the vaccination campaign.
Benue State with a number of 23 LGAs, and 227 wards, received 1,282,340 doses of vaccine with a target population of 1,221,107 eligible children for the Measles campaign.
Cross River State with a number of 18 LGAs and 196 wards, received 801,000 doses of Measles vaccine with a target population of 762,102 eligible children for the vaccination.
Enugu State with a number of 17 LGAs and 291 wards, received 853,000 doses of the Measles vaccine with a target population of 942,707 eligible children.
Kogi State with a number of 21 LGAs, and 239 wards received 801,800 doses of Measles vaccine with a target population of 948,839 eligible children.
The State Health Educators (SHEs) from the respective States who were also present at the meeting shared their activities carried out to ensure no eligible child of nine to 59 months was missed during the vaccination exercise in their states.
The Anambra SHE, Uju Onwuegbuzina noted that Anambra has held her one-day Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilization (ACSM) planning meeting and its State Level Training of Trainers (STOT) for the exercise.
She gave an insight on security compromised LGAs of the State such as: Ihiala, Nnewi South, Orumba South and Ogbaru LGAs, noting some modalities to be put in place to ensure that no eligible child was missed from the areas.
Onwuegbuzina noted that the State is working to ensure that they achieve the 95 per cent coverage target in the forthcoming Measles vaccination campaign to hold across all LGAs of the State in October 2024.
Also present at the meeting were the State Immunization Officers (SIOs) from the implementing states within the UNICEF Enugu Field Office and other supporting partners: WHO, and AFNET.
Other sessions held during the meeting include: overview of the Integrated Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIAs), role of the media, key messages/actions by the media, and media action plan/commitments for the upcoming immunization activities.
A.I
Oct. 7, 2024
Tags: Dr Hilary Ozoh Nnedinma Okeke UNICEF
