Polio: Jigawa to immunise 1.5 million children

The Jigawa government on Sunday said it planned to immunise 1,578, 000 children against polio virus across the state in the first round of the 2015 exercise.

The Immunisation Officer in the state, Alhaji Hassan Kwalam, disclosed this during the inauguration of the exercise in Dutse.



He said there was no case of the virus in the state but continued vaccination would help to prevent the disease in the state.

According to him, the four-day immunisation will be conducted across the 27 local government areas of the state.

He added that, “We do not have any case of polio but routine immunisation would assist us to tackle and prevent any outbreak of the disease in the near future.

“As far as we are concerned, we have eradicated the virus from the state because there was no any reported case of polio in any part of Jigawa in the past 27 months.”

Speaking at the event, the Emir of Dutse, Alhaji Nuhu Sunusi, warned traditional heads of all the Emirates in the state against any complacency that could hamper the effort of eradicating the wild polio virus from the country.

Sunusi, who is also the Chairman of the North-West Zone of Traditional Ruler’s Task Force on Polio Eradication, said that even though there were no more new cases of the disease in the state, more should be done to contain the scourge permanently.

The emir noted that the persistence of the team working in the state together with the support of government was key to the success recorded so far in the new feat achieved of none discovery of new cases.

He reiterated the traditional institution’s continued support toward complete eradication of the disease.

He said, “Now the focus is on us by the international community to see if we can deal with the situation the way we dealt with the Ebola disease, and I know we can do it.”

The Director-General of Gunduma Health Services, Mr Ibrahim Tahir, urged political office holders and government officials to lend their support through sensitisation to the public.

He said the sensitisation should be done especially during political campaigns and rallies on the need for parents to present their children and wards for immunisation.

(NAN)