Abia Govt Flags Off Mass Polio Vaccination Exercise

Speaking during the ceremony held at Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Health Authority, the Executive Secretary Abia Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Chinagozi Adindu, noted that the exercise is important in the fight to eradicate poliomyelitis and other avoidable diseases among children.

Dr. Adindu further explained that it is through a sustained vaccination exercise that preventable diseases like Polio, hunch back and deaths among children would be prevented.

“What we are doing today is very important because we want to consolidate on the gains we have already made in the area of ensuring that our children are protected from avoidable diseases and deaths.

“Polio is irreversible but the good thing is that it is preventable. Once polio affects the nerve cells of a child, it is irreversible.

The only thing that can be done to prevent it is to make sure that we protect the children by vaccinating them”, Adindu said.

He therefore advised mothers to shun all negative claims against the vaccination as doing so would be detrimental to the State and nation and thanked Abians for responding to health programs which has led to a high improvement in eradicating Polio virus in the State.

Earlier in his speech, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Joe Osuji, encouraged mothers and caregivers to ensure their kids are immunised against killer diseases, and warned that any unvaccinated child is in danger of contracting polio and other life threatening illness.

The Commissioner, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Lady Franca Ekwueme, said as a result of the detection of weakened virus secreted in the stool of a child, an average response campaign was carried out to avoid it spreading from one unvaccinated child to another.

Speaking on behalf of other Health Development Partners, a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Nasiru Zurmi, said the Mass vaccination would be flagged off in 20 States in Nigeria and appreciated Abia State Government for its commitment in ensuring that it’s citizens remain healthy.

The Flag off of the 2022 Out-Break Response (OBR2) of Mass Polio Vaccination was used to sensitise mothers and caregivers on the importance of sustained immunisation and also featured the vaccination of children by the commissioners representative.