As part of it response to eradicate polio in the State, the Gombe State Government has put plans in place to immunize some 817,300 children under the age of five.
The initiative is being taken by the Government to counter phase two of Polio Outbreak in Gombe State.
While announcing the government’s approach to containing polio menace in the State, Deputy Governor, Dr Manassah Jatau disclosed that the immunization would cater for children across the eleven local government areas in the state within the period of four days.
Jatau explained that to achieve this, all Chairmen of the Local Government Task Force on Immunization and Primary Health Care should ensure that eligible children in their respective LGAs were identified and vaccinated forthwith.
According to him, they should actively participate, monitor and overcome any challenge that may arise during the exercise. He added that they must not fail.
According to the Deputy Governor, “The Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya administration has health as a top priority. We conducted several rounds of the outbreak response in the last one year. The campaigns have been encouraging and Government has shown strong political will to ensure success of the campaign”.
“To succeed, there is compelling need for all of us to consistently engage in these vaccination campaigns to eradicate Polio from our environment as was the case with the dreaded Smallpox.”
Also commenting was State Commissioner for Health, Dr Habu Dahiru, represented by Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Alh. Musa Filiya. He assured that the government was fully committed to the provision of quality health care to residents of the state.
While calling on parents, guardians and the media to continue supporting the campaign to ensure safety of the people – especially children under five, Dahiru urged for more support.
Dahiru concluded with an appreciation to the Traditional Rulers, and Community leaders who fully supported the fight against preventable diseases”.
The Executive Secretary to the government of Gombe State, Dr Shuaibu Abdulrahaman, while presenting an update of the vaccination campaign activities to various pressmen including the Inclusive News Network, INN, revealed that the January Outbreak Response witnessed tremendous success in comparison to the earlier September 2021 coverage.
Abdulrahaman attributed the success to the commitment of Traditional Rulers, strong coordination of health workers, intense partnership with NGOs, and full attendance of participants at different trainings.
According to him, “During the January Out Break Response, we had a target population of 816,272 eligible children. However, 815,619 children were immunized. That’s a coverage rate of 100% with 5% vaccine wastage rate. No LGA had coverage of less than 90%.
“There has been a decrease in the trend of non-compliance since this round 21. The pending households involving some 38 children were recorded, compared to 27 pending households involving 52 children in the last round of Ipads.
An official of the State Ministry of Women Affairs who does not want her name in print revealed to INN that the major obstacles faced by the government’s response towards wiping out polio in the State is the unwillingness of parents and caregivers to comply with the rules and procedures put forward by the government to ease the campaign against the polio in the state.
According to her, “most parents and caregivers are not cooperating with staff working on the project, they mostly do not grant access for the children to be immunized. These ill informed persons hold superstitious beliefs about such exercise.
She further noted that for the project to achieve its target in this second phase, proper parental orientation is essential alongside attitudinal changes towards the policy which remains sacrosanct”.