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Kaduna to fight polio as 62 kids suffer paralysis
WITH the controversy over the authenticity of the polio vaccine, the Kaduna State Governor, Ahmed Makarfi, has resolved to fight the polio disease in the state to prevent more children from being infected with the virus.
This decision is coming at a time when more cases of polio victims have been recorded in the state.
A four-day immunisation campaign ended on Thursday in eight selected state in the northern region, including Kaduna which is considered to have high polio cases with many children already paralysed.
The manager, National Programme on Immunisation (NPI) in the State Ministry of Health Mr. Usman Binawa told The Guardian in his office during the just concluded polio immunisation that about 62 more children had already been infected by the polio-virus within the last three months.
Binawa stated that there was increase in polio victims in the state because of the controversy generated by the vaccine during the previous exercise. He pointed out that the exercise did not take place in so many places within the state and where it did, the vaccines were rejected by many people due to the controversy.
"So that gave rise to high transmission of polio virus. It has made the number of the cases to rise to 62 as at now", he said.
The NPI manager admitted that despite wide campaign by the Federal and state governments against the disease, some people in the state were still sceptical over the vaccine, adding that it needed more campaign and time before the people could change.
He observed that the people rejected the vaccine in the first place because of the misconception they had about it, adding that the state would continue to mobilise the people until they understood the importance of immunisation.
The state government intends to use the local government chairmen, district heads, community leaders, including religious leaders to ensure that people accept the vaccine during the next immunisation.
Also speaking, the wife of the chairman, Kaduna South Local Council, Hajiya Mairo Taheen, said in as much as the government was making efforts to enhance the life of children, parents should contribute to ensure that their children get this vaccine.
Taheen pointed out that the Federal Government had already paid for these drugs and parents on their part should make their children available for the opportunity.
Hauwa Abubakar of FESTAC Road, Badarawa in Kaduna North Local Council and a mother of a polio victim, has advised parents who are still rejecting the vaccine to embrace it.
Abubakar told The Guardian that her daughter was in that condition because she rejected the vaccine when the vaccinators came to her house to administer the drugs on her.
Abubakar, who spoke in Hausa language through an interpreter, said she regretted her action. She said she never knew that her action could have such a negative effect on her little girl. She further told The Guardian that she rejected the vaccine, which was administered freely but now she had to spend N4,000 per month on physiotherapy in other to make her child walk.
She described the situation of her child as painful and unimaginable. She pointed out that seeing her child in that condition made her worried.
The National President of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Mr. Baver Dzeremo, has pledged that the group would work in conjunction with other government agencies to eradicate poliomyelitis before the end of 2005.
Addressing students of the Benue State Polytechnic at the weekend, Dzeremo said ALGON would also work with the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to check promoters and manufacturers of fake drugs, which is fast destroying the health system of the nation.
He said his executive was restructuring ALGON to ensure that local councils in the country are focused on development and the need of the rural dwellers.
According to Dzeremo, ALGON will mobilise resources to ensure the development of educational and health facilities in the country for the good of the common man.
The ALGON president disclosed plans by the organisation to assist the Polytechnic by building lecture theatres to reduce the problem of accommodation.
To ensure that ALGON succeeds in helping to eradicate Polio from the country, Dzeremo said councils across the nation had been directed to always declare National Immunisation Days (NID) as public holidays for effectiveness of the exercise.
In his comments, the Benue ALGON chairman, Mr. Abba Maro, said the state chapter of the association was poised to fully co-operate with the National ALGON to fight polio to a standstill.
He said that council chairmen in the state would continue to work for the good of the people.
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