Enugu State Government, on Monday, inaugurated 13-day measles immunisation campaign, targeting 500,034 children between nine months and five years.
Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi said this when he inaugurated the exercise in Enugu.
Represented by his deputy, Mrs Cecelia Ezeilo, he said the campaign was part of the government’s commitment to prevent children from lifelong complications associated with measles and other infectious diseases.
The governor said that the state government was working with relevant stakeholders to eradicate the disease on caregivers and parents to help their children by bringing them out for the immunisation.
He urged health care givers to ensure that every child meant of the exercise is immunised.
Earlier, the Commissioner of Health, Dr Fintan Ekochin, said that the immunisation was for children within the age bracket, irrespective of their immunisation status.
The commissioner said the state government planned to achieve 97 per cent coverage during the exercise.
Ekochin urged the media to give the immunisation campaign massive publicity to ensure that parents present their children for immunisation.
The representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Onyiye Emefele, said that the measles vaccination prevented about 2,000 deaths among children of 9 months to 5 years from 2000 to 2015.
Emefele called on parents and caregivers to ensure that their children were be immunised so as to eradicate measles in the state.
Dangana Saidu, representing the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, pledged continued support of the agency for the state government, in terms of vaccination and other materials, to ensure the success of the exercise. (NAN)
