By; BALA B. BITRUS, Minna
Children between nine months old to five years are expected to be vaccinated against measles in the ongoing mass vaccination programme in Niger State.
Commissioner for Health and Health Services in the state, Dr. Mustapha Mohammed Jibrin disclosed that the state government has released N40 Million to undertake the vaccination exercise and that 1800 designated places have been earmarked as centres for the vaccination programme to across the state.
The Commissioner spoke at the start of the 2018 state wide measles vaccination campaign programme which kicked off last Monday across the state.
He said the exercise was targeted at such targeted group who are usually more vulnerable to the deadly viral disease.
Over 12,000 trained health personell have been recruited by the state Ministry of Health to administer the vaccines to the targeted children.
He said the measels disease is a debilitating disease which destroys it’s victims major organs such as the brains, the nervous system, blindness, cause impairment to hearing and affects the heart of an unimmunized child.
The causative viral disease according to the Commissioner is usually manifested in fever, redness of the eyes, rashes and rise in temperature of a victim. The disease has no cure but it can be prevented and managed.
The disease according to health experts is very contagious and is spread in the air and comes with complications such as running nose and cough.
The state government according to the the Commissioner is poised to repel the disease by vaccinating children who are vulnerable to the deadly viral disease.
”We want to eradicate measels disease from the state” according to the Commissioner. The exercise is phased in two batches to ensure that all the targeted children were catered for in the state wide anti measles campaign.
The exercise is currently being carried out in schools for creche’ kids and pupils, in hospitals and such health care facilities across the state.
The Executive Director of the state’s Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Yahaya Na’uzo who also spoke at the occasion, explained that health experts engaged for the exercise were going from house to house to ensure state wide coverage of the exercise.
