Bauchi earmarks N104M for measles campaign, targets 1.7m children

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

The sum of N104 million has been earmarked for this year’s measles campaign exercise in Bauchi state. The campaign targets 1.7 million children.
The Executive Chairman of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA), Pharmacy Adamu Ibrahim Gamawa, disclosed this at press briefing held at the Emergency Operation Centre(EOC), Bauchi, weekend.
Giving the breakdown, Gamawa said that the state would provide N27 million, and another N10 million for social mobilisation while UNICEF will provide N67 million as support for logistics The chairman said the forthcoming measles vaccination campaign exercise which targets 1.7 million children in the state was billed to hold from November 30 to December 6, 2017.
Adamu disclosed that the groups to be vaccinated are children between the ages of 9 to 59 months.
The executive chairman said that orientation would be conducted for the teams as, “skilled manpower is required to apply the measles vaccines drop into the child’s mouth”
He said that fixed vaccination posts would be located at health facilities in the state where immunisation would be provided throughout the day, while immunisation would take place for the five days.
He said that temporal fixed vaccination post (fixed-mobile post would be located at schools, churches, mosques, traditional leaders’ houses, bus-stops, busy streets, bus terminals, motor parks, hard-to-reach-areas, borders, markets and so on.
“Immunisation would be provided at these sites for either the duration of the campaign or partially for few days or few hours in a day depending on the target population,” Gamawa said.
On the mandatory activities to the carried out by the state and local government areas during the measles campaign, he said these include advocacy, sensitisation and planning meetings with stakeholders the state, local governments and ward levels.
Other activities during the measles campaign include distribution of IEC materials, media chats, campaign flag-off, orientation of health workers, sensitisation meeting with principals and head teachers of primary schools, LGA secretaries, LGA Women Development Officers among others.
Gamawa said that the 323 wards in the state, the measles campaign activities will include conducting two community dialogues per ward with community influencers in all the LGAs in the state, one minimum of road shows and theatre performances by theatre groups per ward as well as leverage on existing polio structures to mobilise for them.