United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that it would vaccinate more than 41 million children against polio in the Lake Chad basin disease, as part of a major new health campaign to eradicate in the country.
The campaign is aimed at containing the recent outbreak of the disease in North east of the country.
The agency said it has deployed 39,000 health workers across the country and neighbouring countries such as, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and the Central African Republic to deliver polio vaccines in the high-risk areas. Experts have raised alarm that population fleeing the conflict zone could spread the virus across borders.
UNICEF Abuja Chief of Communication, Doune Porter, said in a statement that the agency was procuring the vaccines and engaging the public through mass media and grassroots mobilization.
The statement quoted the Regional Director for West and Central Africa, UNICEF, Manuel Fontaine, to have said that “the re-emergence of polio after two years with no recorded cases is a huge concern in an area that is already in crisis.
“The scale of our response reflects the urgency: we must not allow polio to spread.”
According to the statement, the ongoing conflict has displaced 2.6 million people, devastated provision of healthcare and left more than 4 million people in North-east Nigeria facing crisis and emergency food security levels.
In response to this, In Borno state, a malnutrition screening was provided as part of the vaccination drive, and UNICEF vaccination teams are conducting the screenings to identify cases of severe acute malnutrition in children under five before referring malnourished children to treatment programmes.
“Children are dying and more young lives will be lost unless we scale up our response,” Fontaine.
“Through the polio vaccination drive, we can protect more children from the virus while also reaching children in need with treatment for malnutrition.”
UNICEF also disclosed that the third round of the current polio campaign would run from October 15 to 18, with additional rounds scheduled in November and December.
The immunisation campaign is being delivered by national governments, with support from UNICEF, the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
However, UNICEF’s response has been hampered by lack of funding, and continued insecurity in the region, as so far, only $50.4 million of the $158 million required, has been received.
