By Muhammad Aliyu Dutse—
Parents’ apathy and lack of adequate sensitisation forced Jigawa’s performance in polio immunisation exercise to a record low among the 36 states of the federation in the 2016.
According to statistics released after the meeting of polio stakeholders, consisting of the Federal Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency and the Rotary Club, it was discovered the state was second to the last among the 36 states of the federation in the 2016 national exercise.
It was further observed that the reasons were apathy of parents to allow their wards to receive oral polio vaccines during the immunization exercise and poor enlightenment and sensitisation campaign in the rural areas.
Irked by this development, the Jigawa state government through its Ministry of Health and state Primary Healthcare Development Agency in collaboration with other relevant stakeholders, will soon commence massive immunisation exercise across the nooks and crannies of the state, with a view to eradicating poliomyelitis and fi ve other killer diseases in the state.
He said going back to the status quo of the last 70’s became necessary because, people prefer the former system of immunisation to the present system.
Th e Commissioner for Health, Dr. Abba Zakari, said government was fully ready to wipe out oral polio virus in the state with a view to making Jigawa polio free, adding: “although in the last three years , we have no single case of polio virus , but that notwithstanding, we cannot relent in our eff orts to eradicate the scourge.
” He disclosed that millions of oral polio vaccines would be provided for the success of the exercise, pointing out that they would meet with traditional institutions to map out strategies for the take off of the immunisation exercise in the state.
