Cross River state government says it was targeting at least 693,000 children, between the ages of one to five years, in its meningitis vaccination campaign which kicked off on Sunday and would last till December 12, 2020
The deputy governor, Prof Ivara Esu, who stated this in Calabar, Monday, during the official flag off of the campaign, noted that the state government was determined to “protect Cross River state children from all vaccines preventable childhood diseases.”
Represented by the Commissioner for Health, Dr Beta Edu, the deputy governor said, “We need to protect our children from meningitis because it kills, deforms the brain, affects their growth and cognitive reasoning and brings with it huge economic burden to not only their families but to the society and the health sector.
“These are things we don’t want to happen, and that is why the state government is harping on prevention, and one of the ways to do this is to administer vaccines to them.
“We should be able to deliver vaccines in potent forms to our children all over the state. For this campaign, we are targeting 693,000 children and we shall deliver these vaccines in potent forms to our children.”
Also speaking, the Director-General of the Cross River state Primary Healthcare Development Agency (SPHCDA), Dr Janet Ekpenyong, said “Meningitis A is a very dangerous disease that if we don’t act proactively, we may end up losing many children.
“The year started on a very interesting note because of COVID 19 and everybody’s attention was focused more on the pandemic but thank God we are beginning to have a rethink on the fact that there are other diseases which kill ever faster than even COVID 19.
“Meningitis is taking children’s lives and rendering some survivors almost useless. If we don’t act fast, we may end up increasing indices of infant mortality.”
Ekpenyong said religious institutions, traditional institutions, media platforms and even town criers at the community levels were being used to carry out awareness, and therefore appealed to parents and caregivers to make good use of the opportunity to ensure that meningitis was eradicated in the state.
She said since the meningitis vaccination is administered in the form of injections, the exercise is done in health facilities and not in homes, and therefore charged healthcare providers to do more in ensuring that all nooks and crannies of the state were captured, adding that the state government was “really committed to good health for all even as we are strengthening our healthcare system.”
