Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, says the state government is more determined to kick polio out of its communities especially the borders and hard to reach areas.
Ipaye stated this while monitoring the ongoing Outbreak Response (OBR) campaign against the circulating vaccination derived polio virus in the Southwest, Nigeria in Imoba Community, in Ifo Local Government Area of the state.
“Because of the sheer determination of the state and Partners,we have said every child must be reached no matter what.
“We have decided to kick polio out of our dear state and the response from the communities is also encouraging”, Ipaye said.
He noted that an estimated number of 1.2million under five children were expected to be reached irrespective of their origin during the ongoing campaign, noting that deliberate efforts were being put to target border communities as they were the areas that were more susceptible to outbreak due to the migration of people.
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Also speaking, the Head Technical Officer, World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Richard Banda, noted that the state was peculiar due to its many border areas, stressing that it was important that stakeholders target inter-border immunisation seriously as the present outbreak was caused by a virus that originated from the northern part of the country into the state through movement of people along the borderlines.
In her remark, Representative, United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Dr. Hayam Nam said the OBR became necessary in order to eradicate the virus in the state and the country at large, saying the aim was to ensure that all under 5 children were duly immunized so that they could be healthy as well as develop full body immunity against the strain.
In their separate responses, the Secretary, Imoba Community Development Association and a mother, Mr. Samuel Ogunyemi and Mrs Amope Subair both appreciated the government in it’s efforts to ensure that children in the state were vaccinated and protected against killer diseases, promising to inform others who were yet to get their children and wards immunized to do so.
