From Maduabuchi Nmeribeh, Kano
Kano state government has concluded plans to vaccinate 3, 242,040 under age five children during July Out-Break Responses (OBRs) vaccination against polio.
Addressing journalists on Friday, to that effect, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Hajiya Amina A. Musa, who spoke on behalf of the state Commissioner of Health, Dr. Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyawa, said the state government in conjunction with development partners, is ensuring that no child is missed in the July OBR round of polio vaccination.
According to him, “optimal performance is highly desirable during OBR rounds by ensuring no child is missed. As we must be aware that cases of missed children lead to poor quality results of the OBR rounds and surely, will affect how we would be able to bring the circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Virus type 2 (cVDPV-2) outbreak under control.”
Recalling that in the past,, several OBRs have been conducted, Dr. Tsanyawa stated that, “and another one has up again in this month of July, 2021, according to the national S/A calendar, for containing the circulating viruses.
“In this direction also, it reveals the necessity to maintain efforts of mobilizing the public for the OBR campaigns and other subsequent rounds of polio vaccination while still facing the scourge of COVID-19 vaccines.”
He said during the campaign, “all children under the age of five years targeting 3, 242, 040 children, will be vaccinated against polio and other vaccine preventable diseases.
“The campaign will, therefore, be conducted at designated health facilities and other fixed posts, while house-to-house teams will go about administering Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) in the 44 Local Government Areas of the state.
“The campaign is scheduled to hold between 31 and 3 August 2021 in all the 44 Local Government Areas. The flag-off of the campaign is to be conducted at Dawakin-Kudu Local Government Area on Saturday the 31 July, 2021.”
Dr. Tsanyawa, however, reiterated that, “the sustainability of pplio-free status is as a result of the unrelenting and concerted efforts of the governmemt and partners that joined the leagues of other countries that are certified wild polio-virus (WPV) free.
“It is on record that the Kano state government under the administration of His Excellency, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has played a significant role in guaranteeing such heroic and historic successes.”
The Commissioner, however, insisted that, “Kano state government is fully committed to ensuring that all eligible children are immunized through various programmes targeted to them.
“Accordingly, I would want to reaffirm our commitment nto improve health care services delivery in Kano state under the table leadership of His Excellency, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the Executive Governor of Kano state.”
While appreciating the vaccination teams, Dr. Tsanyawa recognized the efforts and contributions of development partners such as World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, CDC-NSTOP, Rotary International, Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Dangote Foundation.
He also commended the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, CORE Group, KECCOH-D, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Malaria Consortium, Managment Science for Health (MSH), Society for Family Health (SFH), MSF, AAH, Solina, among other partners who have been helping the state government in the areas of immunization, nutrition, Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Integrated Maternal, New-born and child Health, IDSR, as well as other health system initiatives.
