On Thursday, November 9, the Anambra state government announced that 2.3 million children aged 0 to 59 months received the polio vaccine during the first phase of the Outbreak Response Exercise (OBR-I) in September.
Dr. Afam Obidike, the commissioner for health, made the announcement in Awka while launching the second phase of the Polio immunization campaign (OBR-II) being carried out by Anambra State Primary Health Care Development Agency (ASPHCDA) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners.
He stated that the first phase of the program, which ran from September 16 to 19, targeted over 1.5 million children but achieved 140 percent coverage with over 2.3 million children vaccinated.
He stated that the second phase of vaccination was still ongoing in response to a Polio Virus epidemic in a nearby town, Nkanu West in Enugu state.
He said:
“We encourage parents and caregivers to present their children to be immunized to strengthen their immunity against the virus.
“We are also integrating routine immunization during this four-day exercise as well as birth registration for children to help the state government with data to plan for their healthcare.
“So, it is an all-encompassing campaign. The vaccines are safe and free of charge. We are hopeful that the campaign will be as successful like we had in the first phase.
“We urge the media to take the news out there so that people can understand the need to vaccinate their children against disease. Vaccinated children live healthy and longer.”
Appreciating WHO and other partners for their support, Obidike urged residents to report any health worker who demanded money to administer the vaccines.
Also speaking, the state Coordinator, WHO, Dr. Adamu Abdul-Nasir, congratulated the state for exceeding the target and recording top in the southeast in the first phase of the vaccination exercise (OBR-1)
He said:
“We want to commend the state government for its political will and proactive measures in preventing the polio virus from spreading to the state.
“In this second phase, WHO is supporting the state with logistics and allowances for over 9,000 personnel who will be going to homes, churches, markets, streets, and schools to administer the vaccines. We are also supporting hard-to-reach communities to ensure that all eligible children get vaccinated.”
Earlier, Executive Secretary of ASPHCDA, Mrs Chisom Uchem said the state had taken delivery of over two million doses of the polio vaccine for the OBR-II campaign.
She said the vaccination would start on Saturday, Nov. 11, and end on Nov. 14 in the 21 local government areas of the state.
She added:
“These few days, we will go all out to the nooks and crannies of the state to strengthen and surpass what we recorded in the first phase of the vaccination.”