Dr. Tomi Coker, the Commissioner for Health in Ogun State, underscored the vital importance of parents and guardians ensuring their children receive appropriate immunizations. Immunization not only enhances mental alertness but also plays a crucial role in preventing diseases that could potentially lead to brain disorders.
Furthermore, Coker encouraged residents of the state to wholeheartedly embrace the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination program, scheduled to commence on Tuesday. This initiative offers essential protection to girls against HPV, a known factor in the development of cervical cancer in women. Cervical cancer ranks as one of the leading causes of death among women, second only to breast cancer.
Dr. Coker relayed this information on Monday while launching the Optimized Outreach Strategy campaign for immunization in Isewo, Ijebu Imushin, located in the Ijebu East Local Government area. The program received substantial support through a funding injection of N150 million from the Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund.
The commissioner took the opportunity to address any misconceptions or rumors surrounding the immunization program, emphasizing that the primary objective is to protect children from vaccine-preventable diseases such as poliomyelitis, measles, tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, and other ailments that can potentially result in mental disabilities. This proactive approach to healthcare is crucial for safeguarding the well-being of the younger generation.
She said, “It is pertinent our mothers and guardians don’t give in to all the rumors about immunization because it is all falsehood. Immunization is good for children because it prevents them from having cerebral illnesses and convulsions and that itself protects the brain because when you have a cerebral illness it tends to damage the cells of the brain and you have people not attaining their intellectual capacity and such people may not be gainfully employed later in life.
“This is one of the contributory factors to the increase in unemployment because when people don’t have the required mental capacity to retain skills, they will be jobless. So I would like to encourage mothers to bring their children out for routine immunisation from the ages of six to 15 months.
“There is another immunization that we are starting on Tuesday (today). It is the HPV vaccine that prevents our girls from getting cervical cancer which is the variant of cancer that causes the highest number of deaths in women after breast cancer. The vaccine is for girls ages 9 to 14. The vaccine is very safe and it is free.
“We urge our parents, and guardians to please let the girls take it. The vaccine is safe and effective. It has been proven in England and other climes that girls that have been immunized since the year 2000 have not been able to find one single case of any of them having cervical cancer. This has further reassured us that the vaccine is indeed safe and very effective, so we all must support the success of this vaccination program”.
The Executive Director of Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund, Dr. Fejiro Chinye-Nwoko, while speaking at the event, disclosed that the need to improve the immunization coverage for children in Nigeria informed the partnership with Ogun State, Kwara, and Rivers State and that at least 500,000 children would be vaccinated in each of the states during this exercise.
Dr. Chinye-Nowoko said, “We have found out that the coverage of immunization in Nigeria is lower when compared with other countries in Africa. The Africa Union targets 80% of children vaccinated against all vaccine-preventable diseases, so to further upscale this we have decided to partner with some states lagging and Ogun State is one. We are helping with funding to conduct optimized outreaches to ensure that everyone across each ward of the local government is reached.
“We are committing N150m to this program and we are also partnering with Kwara and Rivers States. Our coverage target at the end of this exercise is at least 90% and we also plan to ensure that over 500,000 children in each of these three states are vaccinated during this exercise.”
