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Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency, in collaboration with Development Partners, has commenced the second round of routine immunization exercise of over two hundred and thirty-eight thousand (238,000) children across the state.
A statement by the Press Secretary of the Kwara State Primary Health Community Development Agency, Mr Alade Opeyemi, indicates that the programme is to strengthen and scale up health services, particularly the hard to reach, underserved and zero dose children.
The Executive Secretary, Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Professor Nusirat Elelu, explained that the Local Immunization Plus Days and the Big Catch up are being implemented to ramp up immunization coverage, rapidly decrease zero dose and partially immunized children so as to increase population immunity through vaccinations.
According to Professor Elelu, the exercise is the second round of the Big Catch-up vaccination campaigns planned for Ifelodun, Baruten and Ilorin East Local Government Areas (LGAs), while the Local Immunization Plus Days for implementation in the remaining 13 LGAs is slated for today till Sunday 16th February, 2025.
She further stressed that immunization is one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions of all times, 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.
The Executive Secretary, noted that the intensification exercise will 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 of the childhood killer diseases.
Prof. Elelu called on all stakeholders, service providers, community leaders, especially, fathers, mothers and other caregivers, to ensure that their children are immunized during this period.
The routine immunization intensification targets about 160,000 children while the big catch up campaign targets about 78,000 children.
By Muinat Usman
