New Telegraph

UNICEF, Lagos Target 18m Citizens For Immunization

…as life-saving vaccines tackle measles, yellow fever, HPV, others

As part of efforts to curb vaccine-preventable diseases, UNICEF and the Lagos State Government have said they would embark on Integrated immunisation activities that target up to 18 million citizens in Lagos State.

Making this announcement in Lagos on Monday at a Media Orientation on Non-Polio Supplemental Immunisation Activities (Integrated Yellow Fever), the Supervising Permanent Secretary for the Lagos State Primary Health Care Board (LSPHCB), Dr Abimbola Bowale urged people in the state to come out and ensure that their children, wards and they take these vaccines.

The immunisation activities will kick off in Lagos State on Saturday, October 19 and will last for an initial two-week period.

Bowale, who is also the Permanent Secretary for Legal State Health District 4, said the state is expecting to achieve at least 95 per cent coverage after which it will assess and may extend the activity.

Briefing the media about the plan, he said the vaccines include the yellow fever vaccine that will be administered to people from nine months to 44 years, measles from nine months to 18 months and the HPV vaccine that covers persons from nine years to 14 years.

“So adults are also eligible for the yellow fever vaccine,” added Bowale. So for the other routine immunisation, we also have oral polio vaccine and the rest.”

He stated that the immunisation coverage in the state is not good enough. “It’s very low and a lot of people actually miss their doses of vaccination, which is the reason for the exercise.”

According to Bowale, “On the 18th of this month, we have the flag-off ceremony, but the immunisation process itself commences on Saturday, October 19. It’s going to be initially for the first two weeks.

“And then we will assess and see what our coverage is like. We are expected to have at least 95 per cent coverage and so we will assess and then see whether we are going to extend it or not.”

The vaccines will be taken everywhere including churches, mosques, motor parks and wherever people congregate. “There is also a group that will move from house to house, from street to street to ensure that everybody is covered with this vaccination.”

The Supervising Permanent Secretary for the LSPHCB clarified that the vaccines are safe, adding that most of the biases against vaccines are based on ignorance. “So vaccination is very good; vaccination is safe and can ensure that we prevent a lot of preventable diseases from maiming and killing our people.

According to him, all the vaccines will be available in primary healthcare centres (PHCs) in Lagos and they are free. However, for some people who may want to go to the private sector facilities to collect certain vaccines, have to pay for them.

He also said every community in the state will be reached. “These include both the river island communities and every hard-to-reach community within the state.”

Aderonke Akinola-Akinwole, UNICEF’s social behaviour change specialist, stated that the media orientation programme is a call to action by media practitioners to help popularise vaccine safety and acceptance.

She said, “We see a decline in vaccine trust and acceptance owing to a lot of rumours being populated. And so we need a channel where people, as much as they hear the rumours, also come back to those rumours through trusted platforms.

“That is why this meeting has been called because we realise that the media is a voice that reaches the voiceless and a platform to reach many.”

She explained, “We have the routine immunisation to target children under two who may have missed their routine immunisation. We have the measles vaccines targeting children between nine months to five years. This is to boost the immunity against the measles disease.

“We would have yellow fever which is targeted for people within the ages of nine months to 44 years. Of all these antigens, it’s also important that we’ll also be doing the HPV vaccination for girls. It is important to know that all vaccines are safe, they are effective, and the good thing is these are free.”

”So whatever can be prevented should be prevented. And it is wise for parents and stakeholders to allow every eligible adult and child within the age that we are targeting to get vaccinated. HPV vaccines protect girls against cervical cancer and they are free and effective.”

Highlighting why the immunisation exercise became necessary, Dr Adesola Akinpelu said, “Over the past two to three years, we’ve been having several outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, measles, yellow fever, diphtheria, even of recent cholera.

“That we are having immunity gaps in the community. And the easiest way to close that gap is to have a statewide immunisation activity while ramping up our routine immunisation process in the states.”

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