The Cross River government is targeting more than 700,000 children in a forthcoming integrated measles vaccination campaign, said Janet Ekpenyong, director-general of the state’s Primary Healthcare Development Agency.

The director-general said this on Tuesday in Calabar at a one-day media orientation meeting on the integrated measles vaccination campaign.

She said the campaign was partly necessitated by the virus outbreak in some parts of Cross River.

She added that 35 cases of measles were recorded in a refugee camp in the Ogoja Local Government Area of the state, attributing it to the influx of Cameroonian refugees into the camp.

Ms Ekpenyong, while giving an overview of the situation, said the vaccination campaign would begin from October 20 to 27.

She thanked the media for the continued support of the state health sector, which according to her, enabled Cross River to record significant achievements.

The director-general expressed confidence in the capacity of the media to disseminate information regarding the upcoming integrated measles vaccination campaign to every nook and cranny of the state.

Ms Ekpenyong said the measles vaccine would be administered alongside COVID-19, polio and other routine vaccines, thereby making the vaccination campaign a comprehensive one.

She added that “strategies have already been mapped out to ensure that the campaign records maximum success.

“We appeal to residents of the state to make their children and wards available for the vaccination.”

Ibrahim Audu, the coordinator, World Health Organization (WHO), Cross River, commended Ms Ekpenyong for providing result-oriented leadership in the primary healthcare sector.

Mr Audu said Ms Ekpenyong’s pragmatic leadership saw Cross River emerge as the best immunisation performing state in the South-South in 2022.

(NAN)