Jigawa immunises 1.5m children against polio

From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse

Thousands of Jigawa residents have presented their wards for the June, 2014 round of immunisation plus days (IPDs), which was conducted for three days throughout the country last week.

Findings by our reporter at Ringim local government area of the state revealed that most of the houses visited by the team of vaccinators have complied, by allowing their children of less than five years to be immunised against the polio disease.

At the house of Malam Awwal of Yakasawa village, who viewed the exercise as one too many, said they have been presenting their wards for the immunisation for years and questioned when it would come to an end.

He told our reporter that all his children have been immunised every time the attendants came around for rounds of the vaccines, as against the past that he used to resist.

Also, upon investigation at Zangon-Kanya and Yan Dutse villages, the residents were seen eagerly presenting their children for the immunisation, which may not be unconnected with the gifts of perfumed soaps given to every child immunised.

The NPI manager in Ringim, Malam Munkaila said enough vaccines have been provided for the exercise and that they are targeting no fewer than 200,000 children in the area.

In the exercise, about 1.5 million children have been targeted to be immunised in all the 27 LGA’s  across the state.

The Commissioner of Health, Dr. Tafida Abubakar, therefore called on all parents and care-givers to continue to accept the exercise through their usual cooperation and support for the benefit of their children under the age of Five years.