The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, has again assured parents that the Oral Polio Vaccine is safe for Nigerian children.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Abubakar spoke in Sokoto on Thursday at a one-day Round Table Discussion on Polio Eradication.
The meeting comprised media professionals and other stakeholders.
Abubakar said that the vaccine had been globally tested by seasoned medical experts and clerics and it was found to be efficacious.
Represented by Alhaji Bello Abubakar, the District Head of Hamma’ali, the sultan said: “The vaccine properly protects the children from getting infected from the debilitating disease and other child killer diseases.
“Our children should be fully immunised against the child killer diseases like measles, tetanus and diphtheria, among others.”
Abubakar also stressed the need for sustained massive sensitisation on the need for parents to allow their children to be fully immunised.
The Executive Secretary of the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Sani Labaran, said that the state had sustained collaborations with neighbouring Niger Republic to ensure success of the polio immunisation.
Represented by Dr Aminu Shehu, the Director, Disease Surveillance and Immunisation, Labaran promised to sustain partnership with all stakeholders to eradicate polio from Nigeria.
Mohammed Muhiddeen, the Head of UNICEF, Sokoto Field Office, lamented that only five per cent of children aged zero to five had been fully immunised in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States.
He said that that there was the need for an “urgent social movement” to redress the ugly trend to adequately protect the children.
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