Traditional and religious leaders have called on the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to put in place quick response mechanisms for possible adverse reactions that could result from immunisation.

Their call is in a communiqué issued on Monday at the end of a national stakeholders’ engagement on integrated Supplemental Immunisation Activities (SIAs) held in Abuja.

The communiqué was co-signed by Ahmad Mustafa, representing the traditional institution; Emmanuel Aribasoye, who represented the clergy; and Ebele Mgbemena, who represented the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

They said poorly managed adverse reactions from immunisation usually inform why some parents develop cold feet towards immunising their children.

The NPHCDA, in collaboration with partners, was involved in the stakeholders’ engagement meeting with faith-based organisations, traditional institutions and representatives of MDAs.

The objective of the stakeholder engagement was to sensitise them on the upcoming integrated SIAs and how they could impact the campaign’s success.

The engagement also allowed them to agree on the expected roles of stakeholders in influencing demands for vaccines and other primary healthcare programmes and interventions.

The SIAs will be held in 26 selected states, including Anambra, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Lagos, Rivers, Ekiti, Ogun, and Ondo.

Others are Osun, Oyo, Benue, FCT, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Zamfara, Yobe and Borno.

The stakeholders recommended that the NPHCDA should conduct advocacy with support and in collaboration with key stakeholders.

“NPHCDA should ensure timely and accurate dissemination of information to support communication and social mobilisation for all groups—women, students, people living with disabilities, and children.

“NPHCDA should also provide adequate personnel for the campaigns and also support training and capacity building for relevant stakeholders,” the communiqué said.

The stakeholders said NPHCDA should promote injection safety and ensure quality and timely response to adverse events that could arise from immunisation exercises.

“It should also ensure adequate plans for the disposal of immunisation waste materials.

“NPHCDA should also share the call line list of all the stakeholders with state health education officers for sustained collaboration.

“It should endorse and implement all recommendations on the lessons learnt from the previous campaigns for improved programme management,” the communique said.

The participants promised to carry out their roles and responsibilities towards the successful vaccination programme.

They promised to support the planning and proper coordination of the campaigns and also assist in resolving cases of people not ready for vaccinations.

“We will facilitate strong collaboration with all key stakeholders and mobilise all the relevant MDAs to be part of the project for effective synergy and positive results,” they said.

The director of advocacy and communications at NPHCDA, Ladan Aliyu, said the integrated SIAs campaign would commence this month (September).

He said there would be vaccines for yellow fever, tetanus and diphtheria (TD), and human papillomavirus, among others.

The director said the NPHCDA was very much aware of the activities of anti-immunisation campaigners but noted that they factored the said challenge in their planning stage so as to mitigate it.

“We have what we call a crisis communication plan for addressing issues at both national and sub-national levels, depending on the peculiarity of the case.

“The crisis communication plan is being implemented by experts; they are dispelling and quelling some of these rumours that stop people from being immunised.

“Bringing in traditional and religious leaders who are close to every community to carry out this campaign is also part of our strategy to dispel some of the rumours carried out by anti-immunisation campaigners,” he said. 

(NAN)