Sokoto to vaccinate 1m children against measles

Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State has flagged off the 2017 measles vaccination campaign with a target of reaching one million children across the state.

Speaking at the flag off ceremony in Gwadabawa local government area of the state, Tambuwal said that the targeted was realistic in view of the fact that the vaccines would be administered in two phases.

“Twelve local government areas will be covered in first phase while eleven local government areas will be covered in second phase. So far, the state government and our development partners have committed huge resources in order to eradicate measles and other killer diseases among our children.

Enough vaccines have been provided that will cater for children in all the nooks and crannies of the state,” he added.

According to him, the state government has already fulfilled all its obligations in the form of counterpart funding and that all partners were up to date in their payments for the exercise.

He assured parents that the vaccines were safe and charged them and care givers to sustain the efforts in order to eradicate the disease, which is one of the childhood killer diseases.

The governor directed all the 23 local government councils in the state to replicate the flag-off campaign in their various localities.

Earlier in his remarks, the state Commissioner of Health, Dr. Balarabe Shehu Kakale, said that 1500 teams had been set up to work across all the local government areas in the state in order to ensure the immunisation of every eligible child.

Though there has been a substantial decline in global measles death, Nigeria still tops the chart of number of children not vaccinated against measles.

A new report published by the World Health Organisation indicates that 20.8 million children worldwide are still missing their first measles vaccine dose and more than half of these unvaccinated children live in six countries.