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The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has donated more than 2.5 million doses of Oral Polio Vaccines to the Bauchi State government.
The Chief UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, Nuzhat Rafique, disclosed this on Thursday at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) Bauchi, where the vaccines are kept.
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Ms Rafique said that the vaccination exercise would take place across the state from 24-29 April.
She called on all stakeholders to ensure massive awareness campaign before the commencement of the exercise to ensure high level turnout and participation.
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According to her, Bauchi State is one of the very important states where we have 13 out of 20 local governments that have zero dose children.
”Zero dose children are those children who have never received any dose of vaccines, and that implies that almost 556,000 children have never received any vaccine.
”We are starting with these Local Government Areas on 24 April, and I request you to give this message to all communities in the state.
”We are targeting every under five children in this campaign, but in those 556,000 children who are zero dose, we are hoping that they will not be zero dose anymore.”
The UNICEF official appealed to all the communities to cooperate and mobilise to go to the vaccination centres or anywhere the vaccination teams would assemble to vaccinate the children.
She stressed that the exercise is important for the future of the children and the next generation.
READ ALSO: $500 million spent on polio eradication in Nigeria- Pate
In the same vein, Patrick Akor, Health Officer, UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, explained that UNICEF had also provided pen markers that would be used to finger mark the children already vaccinated.
”We are going to ensure that all the local government areas and teams have adequate vaccines during the implementation exercise,” he assured.
Bappah Jika, a representative from the Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Board, who confirmed the receipt of the vaccines from UNICEF, appreciated the Fund for their ‘life saving’ support.
(NAN)
