Child Killer Diseases: Katsina Re-strategises To Improve On Prevention

By
Kazeem Tunde
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528
A baby girl watches a health worker inject a vaccine against measles into her arm at a hospital in Bossangoa, the town where a national immunization campaign is being launched. The Government, UNICEF and partner NGOs are providing vaccines against measles to children under five at 885 locations around the country.In December 2008 in the Central African Republic, a Government-launched immunization campaign supported by UNICEF and several NGOs administered measles vaccines to over 660,000 children under the age of five. As part of the campaign, UNICEF also distributed soap and insecticide-treated mosquito nets to over 740,000 children and their mothers. The efforts aim to improve child survival in one of the world’s least developed countries, where access to health care and clean water is now also disrupted by an ongoing civil conflict. Over 17 per cent of children die before their fifth birthdays, many from malnutrition, waterborne diseases or vaccine-preventable illnesses. In the past year, UNICEF has responded to multiple health crises in the country, including yellow fever outbreaks, by supporting hand-washing campaigns and immunization programmes. The immunization campaign against measles was launched in Bossangoa, a town in the conflict-affected north-western region.

Child Killer Diseases: Katsina Re-strategises To Improve On Prevention

Katsina State government says it has re-strategised and launched ‘Operation Rubdubu,’ an aggressive approach to improve uptake of routine immunization against child killer diseases in the state.

The Project Manager, State Emergency Routine Immunization Coordination Centre, Dr. Shaima’u Kabir Abba, disclosed this at media orientation for journalists in the state.

Shaima’u said the operation was to strengthen the weak routine immunization in the state responsible for outbreaks.

According to her, “Based on the findings from our quarterly Lot Quality Assurance Survey, LQAS on routine immunization, we find out that there are a lot of Local government areas, LGAs performing below expectations since the unset of the LQAS, Quarter 4 of 2017 till date Quarter 4 of 2018.

“So we are looking for how can we restrategize to improve the routine immunization services in some of these LGA and that is why we decided to come up with the operation Rubdubu.

“What it (the operation) is all about was collective efforts by staffs from the state and local government, community leaders and service providers to work together.

To join hands together, focus on a LGA at a time to improve the uptake of routine immunization in that particular LGA at that time before moving to another LGA.

“And the target is to ensure increase in the uptake of routine immunization in the LGAs of Katsina State so that every eligible child will be fully immunized for his or her age against the vaccine preventable diseases,” Shaima’u said.

The Project Manager identified lack of awareness of the importance of routine immunization by the care givers as the major cause of high number of unimmunized children in the state.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Secretary, Katsina State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Shamsudeen Yahaya, solicited for the support of the media to mobilize and create awareness at the grassroots for the public to know the importance of immunization and demand for it for the well being of the children, society and the state.

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