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From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
About 210,000 Benue children are expected to be immunised in the five days big-catch-up immunisation exercise carried out in 12 local government areas.
The State Immunization Officer (SIO) at the Benue State Primary Health Care Board, (BSPHCB), Emmanuel Adega, who disclosed this yesterday, said the programme, sponsored by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), recorded an impressive turnout.
Adega, who spoke on the last day of the first round of the exercise, said the state was on course to meet its targeted immunisation coverage.
Benue State was among the 20 states in the country that under-performed in immunisation coverage. The mop up in 12 LGAs poor record is to ensure that children between the ages of 12 and 59 months that missed their immunisation or failed to complete their immunisation were all reached and vaccinated.
The affected LGAs included Ado, Buruku, Guma, Gwer East, Katsina-Ala, Konshisha, Kwande, Logo, Okpokwu, Ushongo, Ukum and Vandeikya.
Speaking on the recorded coverage, the SIO said: “Our people in the field are doing well and the report we are getting from them is encouraging because as the name implies, it is a ‘Big-Catch Up.’ They are really catching the children that were missed during the COVID-19 era and other times when most of them were partially immunised and we still have those that were not immunised, especially from 23 to 59 months.
“The record shows that there is significant improvement in the coverage of children from 23 to 59 months. So, we are so impressed with the programme and we are happy to do it and also continue in the next rounds to close the gap.”
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Adega stated that with the availability of vaccines and the commitment of the team members in the fields, “we will meet our targets which is 210,000 children in the targeted 12 LGAs of the state. We are targeting 55 percent for now.”
Also speaking, the Assistant Local Immunisation Officer (LIO) in Guma LGA, Athanasius Gbangun, who led a team of vaccination officers to the field, said the LGA had “a target of 21,972 children and we are determined to meet the target.
“We cannot afford to be left behind this time. We thank UNICEF and her partners, who have made this possible to save our children from childhood killer diseases. And on our part, we are going round to ensure that no child is missed in this exercise.”
The Ward Focal Person for Mbawa Council Ward in charge of immunisation section at the FSP Clinic, Daudu, Guma LGA, Patience Nyulaku, said her ward was given a target of 1,310 children, saying that after four days, they had already immunised 739 children and hoped to meet the targets before the end of the exercise.
“Besides, from this my centre, we feed five councils wards of Mbawa, Nyiev, Mbabai Mbadwem and Mbaye Yandev, with vaccines.
“Ward Focal Persons in the said wards pick vaccines from us to distribute to their participants, who now go into the fields and no one is relenting because we want our children fully immunised.”
Nyulaku, who commended UNICEF and her partners for the intervention, said: “I have been immunising children in this ward but I never knew that we missed some children.
“With this catch up, we discovered that there were some children that have never been immunised before. If not for this UNICEF programme, the children would not have been discovered and immunised. So, we are working hard to beat our target, hoping that after this exercise, all the missed children would have been captured.”
