Lagos State Government will implement the second round of a 4 day campaign against POLIOMYELITIS starting on 6th
May, 2017 in the
20 LGs and 37 LCDA across the
State.
Special Adviser on Primary Healthcare, Dr. Olufemi Onanuga disclosed this today and said that all children under 5 years of age will be
vaccinated against the disease with two drops of Oral Polio Vaccine
irrespective of their immunization status starting from 8.00am-2.00pm daily at all Primary Health Centres.
He explained further that Poliomyelitis, popularly called Polio, is a highly
infectious viral disease which mostly affects children with symptoms
such as fever, tiredness, headache, nausea, stiffness in the neck and
pain in the limbs. In some cases according to him, it could lead to
paralysis which most of the time is irreversible.
Polio is one of the vaccine-preventable
diseases with no known cure, adding that children under the age of 5 years of age are
the most vulnerable as the disease suddenly strikes and paralyzes them
for life. According to WHO, among those paralysed,
5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.
The Special Adviser, therefore, urged all stakeholders including
parents, political and religious leaders, civil society organizations
and the media to play a role in ensuring that children under five years
are immunized at the PHCs free of charge to reduce the risk of death and
disability from the disease.
“Immunization remains the most cost-effective and efficient child
survival strategy for children who are the future of our State. This
informed our unrelenting efforts in protecting our children from the
vaccine-preventable killer diseases. It is free and safe,” he remarked.
Onanuga further stated that the first round of the Campaign which was held between 25th-28th March targeting about 4.9 million children was a success because all stakeholders were passionate about its success.
He added that measures have also been put in place to record an
improvement over the last program as according to him, all vaccinators
throughout the State have been adequately prepared for the exercise.
“The vaccinators will move from house to house, visit schools,
religious houses, venues of social events as well as other public places
to ensure that all eligible children are vaccinated,” he said
He assured that the Akinwunmi Ambode administration will not renege
on its promise to deliver qualitative healthcare to the citizenry
regardless of age, gender or political affiliation.
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