The Zamfara Government says it has received vaccines for the prevention of diphtheria, with a vaccination exercise scheduled to commence in the state on Thursday.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Nafisa Maradun, disclosed this during a one-day State-Level Traditional Leadership Engagement Meeting on the Zamfara Tracking and Accountability for Equitable Immunisation (Z-TRACE) Project in Gusau on Tuesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the announcement followed an outbreak of diphtheria that recorded 44 deaths out of 367 identified cases, with more than 200 recoveries.
NAN recalls that the Director of Public Health in the ministry, Dr. Yusuf Haske, had confirmed the outbreak in an interview with NAN in Gusau.
The development led to the extension of school resumption by the State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology by two weeks.
The commissioner said the state government had secured the vaccines and would administer them to children in the affected Local Government Areas beginning on Thursday.
Maradun, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Rilwan Zurmi, said 11 local government areas of the state currently have reported cases of diphtheria.
She explained that results of analysis conducted by the ministry showed that most of the children who contracted the disease either did not receive vaccination or were not fully immunised.
Maradun described vaccination as essential to protecting children against preventable diseases, urging traditional rulers to intensify community sensitisation on the importance of immunisation.
The commissioner said the Sultan Foundation, under the Z-TRACE project, had targeted to reach zero-dose and under-immunised children across communities in seven local government areas of Zamfara identified to have a high number of such children.
She explained that the project had been designed to ensure that children who have yet to receive any vaccine, as well as those who have not completed their routine immunisation, were identified, reached and vaccinated.
Maradun emphasised the role of traditional leaders in mobilising parents and communities to make their children available for vaccination, particularly as the state prepares to commence the diphtheria vaccination exercise.
Speaking during the meeting, the Programme Officer of the Sultan Foundation in Zamfara, Jamilu Sarkin-Gulbi, said the programme had targeted 30 per cent of the 269,421 identified zero-dose and under-immunised children in seven LGAs in the next 17 months.
He said the Z-TRACE Project is a community-driven accountability initiative aimed at tracking children and strengthening accountability from households to health facilities to ensure equitable access to immunisation.
According to him, the project will rely on three key pillars: leadership and policy under the Ministry of Health and the State Primary Health Care Board, traditional institutions and community structures, as well as LGA teams and Community-Based Organisations.
Sarkin-Gulbi said the involvement of traditional rulers was critical because of their leadership role in their communities, which is capable of mobilising parents to ensure that their children receive routine vaccinations.
He appealed to the Emirs, District Heads, Ward Development Committees, Community-Based Organisations and other stakeholders to support the implementation of the project across the seven participating local government areas.
He urged the media to intensify public awareness on the importance of vaccination and help take the message to households across the state.
In his remarks, the Emir of Moriki, Alhaji Bashir Samaila, urged participants to support the Sultan Foundation and other stakeholders in their efforts to reduce and eventually eliminate zero-dose and under-immunised children in Zamfara.
The emir pledged the support of traditional leaders to the Sultan Foundation in the effort to tackle the menace of zero-dose children in parts of the state.
NAN reports that the Sultan Foundation is implementing the Z-TRACE project under the GAVI Fund Manager Mechanism with Mannion Daniels’ support.
The meeting was attended by traditional rulers, officials of the State Primary Health Care Board, Ward Development Committees, health partners and Community-Based Organisations, among others.
(NAN)
