The Kwara State Government, in collaboration with the Development Partners, has commenced the second round of routine immunisation exercise of 238,000 children across the State.
This was disclosed on Tuesday in Ilorin, the State capital, by the Executive Secretary of Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Professor Nusirat Elelu, while interacting with journalists, saying that this is to further strengthen and scale up health services, particularly to the “hard to reach, underserved and zero dose children”.
The exercise, according to her, is the second round of the Big Catch-up vaccination campaigns planned for Ifelodun, Baruten and Ilorin East Local Government Areas (LGAs), which started on Monday, while the Local Immunization Plus Days are planned for implementation in the remaining 13 LGAs, which would take place between Tuesday 11th and Sunday 16th February 2025, adding that the “Local Immunisation Plus Days and the Big Catch up are being implemented to ramp up immunisation coverage, rapidly decrease zero dose and partially immunized children so as to increase population immunity through vaccinations”.
Prof. Elelu stressed that immunisation is one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions of all time, adding that it has prevented millions of deaths and ill health every year, thus, reducing morbidity and mortality across the world in a safe and cost-effective manner.
She noted that the intensification exercise would adopt an integrated approach because the combination of vaccines with other health interventions such as vitamin A supplementation helps to reduce the likelihood of children dying from most childhood killer diseases.
While commending Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for his enormous support to the Agency, the Executive Secretary, added that the Governor has demonstrated firm belief and commitment to both routine and supplemental immunisation programmes by providing an enabling environment as well as making funds available for the implementation of immunisation campaigns, revealing that the support given to the Agency last year enabled the health workers to penetrate underserved and hard to reach areas with immunisation and other essential health services.
Prof. Elelu called on all stakeholders, service providers, community leaders, especially, fathers, mothers and other caregivers, to ensure that their children are immunised during this period.
She affirmed that the State Government would continue to work with partners such as the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Bank, to ensure adequate health care service delivery in Kwara State.
The routine immunisation intensification targets about 160,000 children, while the big catch-up campaign targets about 78,000 children, she added.
