LAGOS – Lagos Mainland Local Government, Ebute Meta yesterday said that it immunised 1,651,171 children against polio during second National Immunisation Plus Days (NIPDs) programme.
The programme, which was for children aged zero to five years, began on April 25 and ended on April 28.
The exercise was kicked off on Saturday at the local government secretariat Ebute Meta and supervised by the Executive Secretary of the council, Mrs. Omolola Essien.
The programme was supported by International Rotary Club District 9110 which donated materials such as soaps, T-shirts and other logistics.
The executive secretary of the council, had at the start of the programme charged the immunisation teams to ensure its success, saying that all public places must be targeted and the children immunised.
“I encourage my team to ensure that this year’s programme received the needed attention, for this reason all public places must be visited, markets, churches and schools.’’
A correspondent who monitored the exercise report that the eight primary health care centres visited and the 18 wards in the local government were covered.
Reviewing the conduct of the exercise, the council’s Apex Nurse, Mrs Folake Bakare, described it as a huge success and commended the turnout which, she noted was impressive.
“The programme is a huge success, from those places visited, we have large turnout. People were eager to have their children immunised.
“The soaps and sweets that we distributed also served as incentive,’’ she said.
Contributing, the Health Educator of Mainland Local Government, Mrs Temitope Akinterinwa gave the immunisation programme an excellent scorecard.
Also the second Apex Nurse for Yaba Local Council Development Area, Mrs Omolara Riberion, said the scheme was successful.
“The immunisation has been a success story but we still have some challenges, part of them being uncooperative attitude of some targeted communities.
“There is an estate named Olanrewaju that initially denied our team access to the estate until we called a doctor known to be living inside the estate,’’ she said.
Commenting, the Medical Officer of Health, Mainland Local Government, Dr Solomon Oyetoyan, appealed to the public to allow their children to be immunised.
He said Nigeria was almost achieving zero case of polio outbreak, noting that this was important to Nigerians.
“Our teams and the general public must not rest on their oars until the disease is kicked out of the country, this will be achieved through cooperation by all,’’ he said.
Other challenges recorded were the difficult terrain in some places, while some riverine communities were not accessible except going by canoe.
Language barrier was also identified as a challenge as some Ilaje natives did not understand the essence of the exercise.
At the end, the number of children immunised in Mainland Local government as released by the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Miss Kosisochukwu Ajegbo, is 1,651,171.
Communities covered are Iwaya, Simpson, Aiyetoro, Otto, Abule Oja, Gbobi sabe, Abule Ijesha, Abule Nla, Onike Oyadiran, Freeman/Harvey, Oko Baba.
Others are Makoko, Adekunle, Araromi, Botanical, Abule ijesha, Aderupoko, Alagomeji and Oyingbo.
