For the healthy growth of children, the Oyo State government has told parents that the polio vaccine is free, safe, and effective against polio-derived paralysis, and they should ensure that all children under the age of 5 take the vaccine.
Executive Secretary, Oyo State Primary Health Care Board, Dr Muideen Olatunji, who gave the charge at the flag-off of the second round of house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns across the state, said parents should make the vaccination of their children a norm.
Olatunji, who was represented at the occasion by the director of disease control and immunisation of the board, Dr Johnson Osoko, stated that the vaccination of children between zero and 5 years with the novel oral polio vaccine will prevent children from catching polio, which is dangerous to their health and can cause paralysis and even death.
“It is the government’s proactive response in making sure we respond quickly anytime we see an outbreak so that it does not become an epidemic in our state. Other federation states are following suit, so it’s not only Oyo State.
“We also seize this opportunity to encourage our mothers to link up with our health facilities for the routine immunisation of their children.
“Immunisation has many benefits, including socioeconomic ones. The child’s health benefits from it, and their future is likewise guaranteed. It is good for the mother, and it is good for the nation at large.
“Mothers shouldn’t allow anybody to discourage them from getting this vaccine for their children; this is not the time to talk about palliative. Having healthy children is the best palliative, which is why we are urging parents to make sure their kids are vaccinated.”
Dr Olatunji declared that over a million children were vaccinated in the first round of oral polio vaccination in the state, adding that eligible children between the ages of zero and five will again receive a booster dose as well as children previously missed in the exercise.
Representative of the World Health Organisation, Dr Philips Azonto, urged parents to be responsive to their roles in ensuring that their children are healthy and support their development as future leaders of Nigeria.
He urged them to ensure that their neighbours’ children also take the oral polio vaccine so that they don’t pose a risk to other children in the community and to report all cases of children previously walking or crawling but unable to do so again to health care workers in their vicinity.
Mr Olatunji Samuel, UNICEF’s representative, stressed the need for mothers to adequately breastfeed their babies and handwash as part of things mothers should do alongside vaccination to ensure their children are healthy.
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