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The Kwara State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed, on Tuesday in Ilorin flagged off the Measles Vaccination Campaign, calling on parents and caregivers in the State to make their children available for the immunisation.
According to the governor, on no account should parents deprive their children a secure future and a healthy life on the basis of cultural and religious beliefs.
Ahmed explained that the state government had put in place strategies to reduce the burden of measles and placed a high premium on Primary Health Care and Routine Immunisation.
“The government has supported Primary Health Care activities by paying the counterpart fund for this Measles Vaccination Campaign and the biannual Maternal, New-born Child Health Week, which is aimed at delivering high impact interventions to mothers and children,” the governor said.
Ahmed assured Kwarans that the forthcoming State Health Insurance Scheme would also ensure that quality and affordable health care services, including immunization, are accessible to all citizens of the State regardless of their economic status.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization Coordinator in the state, Pharmacist Mustapha Katibi, has commended the state government for retaining its polio free status since 2009.
In his goodwill message at the Measles Vaccination Campaign, Katibi said the WHO is pleased with the Kwara State Government in its activities to ensure that the people of Kwara State attain highest standard of health.
Katibi explained that his office had collaborated with the state in a number of campaigns, including the just concluded Yellow Fever Preventive Vaccination, in which Kwara State scored over 90 per cent in Post Coverage Survey Report released last week.
The WHO Coordinator also disclosed that Measles remains a burden in Nigeria as a result of high level of unvaccinated children.
He said: “Nigeria, being a signatory to the measles elimination by the year 2020, is organising measles campaigns from October last year to March this year.”