(Picture of Polio campaign in the Kaduna)
By Abdallah el-Kurebe
As the seventh round of polio immunization enters its second day, the manager of National Polio Immunity (NPI) in charge of Kware local government of Sokoto state, Alhaji Ahmed Jelani has disclosed that the cases of vaccine rejection have been reduced by over 90 percent.
Disclosing this to members of Journalists Against Polio (JAP) who were there to monitor the ongoing 7th round of Polio Immunization exercise on Sunday, the manager said that although Kware was one of the high risk (HR) local government areas (LGAs) in Sokoto, the cases of non-compliance had reduced.
Jelani explained that 12,000 were missed in previous immunization exercises, measures taken to resolve cases of non compliance included house- to -house meetings and community dialogues.
“In Kware, about 12,000 children were previously missed due to non compliance but it had reduced to 17 households with 29 children,” he said.
He added that although a total of 69,740 children under five years were targeted for the exercise in the local government area, 39,106 children were immunized on the first of the four day exercise.
Relatively, the Local Immunization Officer of Sokoto North, Danjuma Dandabo said that a total of 96,975 children were targeted for the exercise in the area where they received 100,480 doses of polio vaccines for the round of the exercise.
In Illela local government area, Miss Linda Moses disclosed that the introduction of 20 health camps by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), equipped with essential drugs for free treatment of minor ailment, had reduced rejection of polio vaccine in Sokoto State.
Moses who spoke to JAP members in Amarawa Village of the local government on Sunday explained that the camps has a nurse, vaccinator and other health workers.
