Dr Idowu Audu, the Deputy Incident Manager of National Polio Emergency Operations, on Saturday, said Nigeria has been consuming 70 per cent of the world’s polio vaccines without significant results.
Audu, while speaking in Ilorin during a meeting of experts, lamented that while the country was consuming most of the world’s polio vaccines, the virus has not stopped infecting its children.
He told the Third Quarter Review/Engagement Meeting of Kwara State Traditional Leaders’ Council Committee on Health that the ailment has resurged, and was spreading especially in some Northern states.
Audu said Zamfara alone has about 35 per cent prevalence, and that non-compliance has been a factor that has been stopping the total eradication of polio in Nigeria.
“Non-compliance cases are buried and hidden. These are some of the problems that disrupt vaccine programmes in the country,” he said.
Audu appealed to the traditional leaders to help the government in the improvement of routine vaccinations for polio, measles and whooping cough in the country.
In her address, Dr Nusirat Elelu, the Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, said the meeting was to bring together traditional institutions and other stakeholders.
“This bringing together is for robust engagement on community ownership of vaccine programmes,” she said.
Elelu, who was represented by Dr Michael Oguntoye, the Agency’s Director of the Primary Healthcare System, noted that trained healthcare workers were utilised for vaccine programmes in the state.
She appealed to people in the state to allow their children to receive life-saving protection.
The Executive Secretary observed that there were still pockets of recalcitrant individuals who posed a challenge to effective vaccination exercise.
She however reiterated the resolve of the state government to partner with traditional and religious leaders to ensure polio was wiped out of Kwara and the country.
In his Lecture, Ademola Enikanselu, the Programme Officer, of Chigari Foundation in Kwara, appealed to traditional leaders and partners to monitor vaccine coverage and uptake in their various communities.
“There is a need to trail the progress, towards immunisation and identify areas for improvement,” he said.
Enikanselu also advised them to report challenges and barriers to vaccine shortages in the community.