UNICEF engages journalists to widen campaign for polio eradication in Katsina
By Zubairu Idris
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has engaged the media to widen enlightenment campaign on the need for parents to support ongoing efforts to eradicate polio in the state through immunisation.
The UNICEF Officer in-Charge (OIC), Kano Field Office, Dr Karanveer Singh, said on Monday in Katsina at a media dialogue on polio immunisation that the campaign was to muster support for the immunisation of every child against polio and other deadly diseases.
Singh, who is also the Nutrition Manager, that the vaccine is safe and effective in the fight against the disease.
The UNICEF official urged the media to play its role in ensuring that no child is left behind during the exercise by building vaccine confidence and dispelling misinformation about the disease and the vaccine.
He warned that polio is highly infectious, adding that “once a child is infected with the virus, the child will be permanently paralysed.”
Singh, therefore, emphasised that every round of the immunisation is important, likewise getting every child immunised until the virus is completely eradicated.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary, Katsina State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Shamsuddeen Yahaya, said not less than three million children will be immunised against polio between April 24 to 30, across the state.
He, therefore, urged the media to sustain the enlightenment of caregivers and all other stakeholders on the importance of polio immunisation.
The executive secretary said the state has 1,636 health facilities providing routine immunisation services for children, and would engage 3,700 independent monitors to ensure that every eligible child is immunised within the six days of the statewide polio immunisation exercise.
