About 700 thousand children will be reached during the Meningitis A vaccination campaign in Cross River State, south-south Nigeria.
Dr. Betta Edu, the Commissioner for Health in Cross River made the remark at the official launch of the Meningitis A campaign at Ediba community in Calabar Municipality.
Dr. Edu, who represented the deputy governor Professor Ivara Esu said: “Our target is to achieve universal coverage by protecting children from all vaccine preventable diseases. We are to reach 693 thousand children in Cross River State.
“We are not taking chances. Cross River has just flagged off the meningitis statewide vaccination campaign and we intend to reach out to at least 693 thousand children between the ages of One to Five years in churches, at home, market places and schools. We have points where parents are supposed to take their children to get vaccinated.”
The Commissioner noted that the campaign would be extended to the more than 46 thousand refugees in the state and urged the people to support the efforts of government to keep the populace safe and healthy.
“We would also be extending this campaign to the refugees and those seeking asylum in Cross River. There are over 46 thousand of them in camps around the state. Health workers have been trained and mobilized with adequate amount of vaccines and logistics to deliver on this mandate,” Edu said.
Dr. Janet Ekpenyong, the Director General of the Cross River Primary Healthcare Development Agency, in a brief remark, described Meningitis A as “one of the deadly diseases, which if care is not taken, may result in the death of many children.”
Ekpenyong explained that parents, caregivers and guardians would be expected to take their wards to designated locations around their community for the vaccination, noting “health workers will not be going from door-to-door to administer these particular vaccines because they are injectable.
“Parents would have to take their children to primary healthcare centres or designated locations for the vaccines because when it comes to injections, there may be risk or complications that may arise if administered at home. Medically, it is acceptable to have injections of this nature administered within our facilities,” Ekpenyong hinted.
Supporting the campaign
A representative of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Halima Tafida in a goodwill message assured that the agency was supporting the state with about thirty-four monitors and supervisors as well as to procure the vaccines for a successful campaign.
Eke Tobechukwu of the UNICEF office in Cross River in a message said 850 thousand doses of the vaccines have been procured to cater for the children and pledged to support the government to exceed its target of 693 thousand babies.
Highpoint of the ceremony was the vaccination of Ediba community children by relevant stakeholders in Calabar.
