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By Akpan David, Calabar
Cross River State government has decided to carry out massive polio eradication campaign. This campaign will also involve borderline communitiies in both Nigeria and Cameroon.
Wife of the state governor, Dr Linda Ayade disclosed this yesterday when she flagged-off The Second Outbreak Response (OBR2).
She said the public enlightenment campaigns is meant to eradicate Polio Virus Type Two amongst children and reduce childhood diseases.
She said they aim to vaccinate 900,000 children, including those in the borderline communities.
“We are also doing border synchronization where people from this other part of the country reach out to other countries to ensure that those who are closed to our borders are also vaccinated.”
“So in this particular campaign, children who are on the other side that is closed to our borders will be also vaccinated. These are measures to ensure that we do not have those diseases crossing into our state.”
“Polio is a highly infectious disease that affects the nervous system of the body and that is why we do not take this disease for granted.”
“It is a disease that once you contact it, there is no cure. The only thing you can do is to prevent it. Polio has caused lots of damage, not just on the health of the children but also the psychological trauma of a family having a child who cannot walk.”
Represented by director general of the state Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Janet Ekpenyong, the governor’s wife urged religious leaders, traditional rulers, parents, schools, churches, and caregivers to support the campaign.
Ayade noted that immunization is crucial to the survival of children against vaccine-preventable diseases.
She said that children aged between 0 and 5 years would be administered two drops of the novel polio vaccine Type Two alongside other antigens that are due.
She noted that the government of Sen. Prof. Ben
She also assured that her husband would continue to allocate more resources to ensure a seamless campaign and urged parents and caregivers to ensure that their eligible children are immunized against polio.
She also mentioned that one of the reasons for the outbreak response was the reemergence of type2 polio in other parts of the country.
“Recently, Nigeria was declared polio-free and all the three types of polio were no longer in Nigeria. However, the type2 virus has reemerged in some states and that is why the outbreak response was introduced to see that we can curb the spread.”
“In Cross River State, we do not have any case of polio and we hope to sustain the status in the state by ensuring that every child is protected against the virus.”
