The Department of Primary Health Care of the Ministry of Health has urged the Nigeria media to educate and enlighten citizens on the need for children between 9 month to 5 years to be vaccinated.
The charge was made yesterday at a media sensitisation meeting held in Benin City, to educate the media on the Measles Vaccination Campaign done every two years to reduce death rate as a result of measles.
In his remark, the Director of the Department, Dr. Eghe Abe said media as one of the strategies to reach mothers, care giver and traditional rulers will help in bedding rumours associated with the campaign when it starts.
He noted that though only few cases have been recorded in the state, there is need to continue the campaign to completely eradicate measles in Nigeria.
He stressed that a child must be immunize twice to stand a better chance against measles as statistics shows that “So far, 22,567 suspected Measles cases and 112 deaths (CFR,0.50%) have been reported in 2015 from 36 states & FCT compared with 15, 497 cases and 85 deaths (CFR, 0.55%) from 36 states & FCT at the same period in 2014”.
He said, “When we say a child is immunized, 80% for the first one and 97% for the second one. There is still some chances but even when the child now have measles, the severity can’t be as much as when the child was not immunized at all and that is also one reason why we must ensure that we immunize our children.
“From all the cases we had last year, Edo state only contributed two to the one in the country. Though we have not done badly, we are part of the nation we must continue to be at alert so that that we don’t get to where some states are”.
