No fewer than 37 million under-five children have been immunized so far in 13 states of the northern part of Nigeria during this month’s round of Sub – National Immunization Days, SIPDs which began on Saturday.
According to a statement by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, (NPHCDA) a total of 39 million doses of Trivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (TOPV) have been distributed to all the political wards in the 13 participating states which included Borno, Yobe, Kaduna, Niger, Sokoto, Adamawa and Zamfara. Others are Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Bauchi and Taraba States.
President Muhammadu Buhari also joined the campaign in his Daura, Katsina resident on Saturday where he administered the oral polio vaccine on some selected children. He had earlier in July immunized his three-month old grand daughter, Zuleiha Bello Abubakar as part of activities to mark one year of free polio case in the country.
The NPHCDA statement said the state governors, like the president, had “demonstrated equal impressive political commitment to sustaining the current gains of one year without polio transmission in the Country,”
Dr. Ado Muhammad, the Executive Director of NPHCDA commended all health workers and Nigerians in general for the sustained dedication and patriotism leading to non – transmission of a single case of polio in Nigeria. He expressed hope that Nigeria would attain polio – free certification by 2017.
The September SIPDs ends on Tuesday.
