Oyo commences immunization as measles kills five in one week

Following the death of five persons ‎within a few days as a result of measles attack, the Oyo State Government has ordered the state Ministry of Health to begin emergency immunisation of children in the state.
A source who preferred anonymity as she was not authorised to speak on the matter told New Telegraph on Monday that all the deaths were recorded in the Sabo area of Ibadan, heavily populated by citizens from the Northern part of the state.
Two weeks ago, the state government had announced that measles immunisation would be conducted between January 28 and February 1, 2016.
But the latest directive signified the severity of the condition in the state and the determination of the state government to quickly arrest the ugly trend.
The source said: “The state Ministry of Health will begin vaccination against measles on January 19, 2016 instead of the earlier scheduled date of January 28, 2016. This is informed by the death of five people because of the disease. The state is committed to safe guard the life of the citizens, which informed the directive to begin the vaccination ahead of time.”
The state Health Educator, Oluwatoyin Olawoyin, had earlier said the exercise would target children from nine months to 59 months and that 2.5 million children would be given the vaccine.
Olawoyin had said: “In 2015, 761 blood samples from children were taken to the laboratory as part of the state measles surveillance activity. We had 9.7 per cent of the number with negative result while 3.7 per cent tested positive to measles. The number of children who tested positive in 491 cases in 2014 was 2.2 per cent while in 2013, 15.3 per cent of 567 blood samples belonging to children tested positive to it.”
According to the state government, the exercise will be conducted with support from the World Health Organisation and it will involve 15,708 personnel grouped into 2,244 teams.
WHO Measles Campaign Consultant, Adamu Bello, said the rate of success in most vaccination was 85 per cent, with the rest would be subjected to a second chance.
New Telegraph.