Vaccination exercise in 3 states against yellow fever

He said the vaccination campaign became imperative due to cases of yellow fever confirmed few weeks ago in Kogi and Kwara state.

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) says it will conduct yellow fever vaccination campaign in Kogi, Kwara and Zamfara states, to curb the spread of the disease.

Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director of NPHCDA disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja.

He said the vaccination campaign became imperative due to cases of yellow fever confirmed few weeks ago in Kogi and Kwara state.

He said that Agency in collaboration with Nigeria Centre for Disease Control mounted the yellow fever response initiative.

“The vaccination campaign is to ensure that children that are vulnerable to the disease are aware and get vaccinated in those states,” he said.

In a related development, Shuaib said the agency would no longer accept false data of vaccination reaching all Nigerian children.

He said that the 2016/2017 Multi Indicator Cluster Survey and National Immunization Coverage survey was an eye opener to the agency.

He explained further that most of the key players in the health sector had suspected that the Agency was not reaching Nigerian children with the vaccines, as the administrative coverage data suggested.

“What the coverage survey told us was that the data that we relied on in the past few years was not accurate data.

“We have health workers from the facilities level falsifying data; given the impression that we are doing well and in the actual fact, we have not been doing very well in the past.

“We accept that we are doing a good job but with low coverage; we have a platform and foundation to build a more sustainable and efficient immunization system.

“This government has made it very clear that health is a priority; NPHCDA has also declared the state of public health concern around the number of children that were vaccinated.”

Shuaib said that no fewer than a million children in Nigeria were yet to be reached with the vaccine they ought to have received before now.

He said the agency has setup the national routine immunisation coordination centre as an engine room to ensure better coordination for routine immunisation activities nationwide.

Shuaib further assured that the agency has adopted a zero tolerance to data falsification.