The Abia State Government has said it achieved 96 per cent coverage in the just-concluded measles-rubella vaccination campaign, surpassing the 95 per cent benchmark required to attain herd immunity against infectious diseases statewide.
The Commissioner for Information, Okey Kanu, disclosed this on Monday while briefing journalists on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting, in Umuahia.
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Mr Kanu said the campaign, which commenced on 3 February, targeted children aged nine months to 14 years in schools, health facilities and other public institutions across the state.
He noted that the exercise surpassed the 95 per cent herd immunity threshold, recording 96 per cent coverage of the target population, and described the outcome as a significant public health success.
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Mr Kanu said more than 8,000 vaccination teams were deployed across the state to ensure smooth implementation, adding that officials were still collating detailed data from the exercise.
He said the achievement underscored the commitment of the current administration to improving healthcare delivery and making quality medical services affordable and accessible to residents across the state.
Mr Kanu further announced that the governor approved a collaboration between the State Ministry of Health and Quantus Medical Foundation, a United States-based healthcare consultancy, to strengthen service delivery standards.
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He said the partnership would focus on training health workers to adopt global best practices, improve patient experience and enhance overall efficiency in public health facilities statewide.
He also disclosed that the ministry would functionalise 53 fully equipped Primary Health Centres, raising the number of operational centres in the state to about 117 upon completion.
Improving PHCs
The commissioner added that the Abia State Digital Health Pilot Project had commenced in selected hospitals and primary health centres to improve data management and healthcare service delivery.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Health, Enoch Uche, said the training programme aimed to institutionalise best practices across primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities throughout the state.
Mr Uche said the governor mandated the ministry to engage healthcare culture-change experts to address service quality concerns, communication gaps and issues of professional conduct in facilities.
He explained that the initiative would train doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health workers in effective communication, empathy and improved patient-care processes across facilities.
Mr Uche noted that poor communication and lack of empathy often resulted in misunderstandings between healthcare providers and patients, sometimes undermining trust and treatment outcomes.
He said the training would be implemented in phases, beginning with doctors and nurses before extending to other categories of health workers at the local government level.
He described Quantus Medical Foundation as a healthcare culture-change consultancy led by an Abia-born professional with experience working with health institutions within and outside Nigeria.
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Regarding vaccination outcomes, he said the 95 per cent benchmark represented the minimum requirement to achieve herd immunity and prevent sustained transmission of infectious diseases.
He explained that herd immunity provided indirect protection when a large proportion of a population became immune through vaccination or prior exposure, reducing chances of outbreaks.
Mr Uche added that achieving 96 per cent coverage meant Abia had exceeded the required threshold, significantly lowering the risk of measles or rubella outbreaks statewide.
(NAN)
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