The Zamfara government says it is taking all necessary measures to improve routine immunisation by ensuring that every eligible child receives life-saving vaccines.

The deputy incident manager of the polio emergency operations centre in Zamfara, Jamilu Bawa, gave the assurance on Thursday while speaking at a one-day onboarding of Routine Immunisation service providers under the Z-TRACE project in Gusau, Zamfara.

The training was organised by the Sultan Foundation for Peace and Development in collaboration with the Zamfara Primary Health Care Development Board.

Mr Bawa said the initiative was designed to identify zero-dose and under-immunised children, enrol them in routine immunisation programmes and ensure they receive the required vaccines. He stressed the need for health workers, development partners and other stakeholders to work together to address challenges affecting routine immunisation across the state.

According to him, the project will also strengthen follow-up mechanisms to ensure that children receive their vaccines throughout the immunisation schedule.

He restated the importance of accurate data collection and documentation at health facilities, local government and state levels to improve coordination and track immunisation progress.

The deputy incident manager expressed confidence that the project would improve immunisation coverage, adding that the participating health workers had demonstrated their willingness to support the initiative.

Speaking on concerns about the commitment of some health workers, particularly in areas with high numbers of zero-dose children, the official said the major challenge was accountability rather than financial motivation.

He explained that the state government had recently reviewed the remuneration of health workers and taken steps to improve their welfare.

Mr Bawa stressed that stronger monitoring and accountability mechanisms were important for ensuring effective service delivery. He assured that necessary measures were being introduced to monitor the performance of health workers and address cases of negligence in accordance with established procedures.

The official noted that his responsibility as deputy incident manager included providing technical support to the state and local government areas, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, to interrupt polio transmission and improve routine immunisation.

On the recent suspected outbreak of polio in Talata Mafara and, most recently, in Kaura Namoda, Mr Bawa said investigations were ongoing and that the cases referred to during the interview had yet to be confirmed.

He expressed optimism that ongoing efforts by the relevant authorities and stakeholders would help bring the situation under control.

The RI service providers were drawn from Zurmi LGA in Zamfara.

The Sultan Foundation is supporting Z-TRACE by placing Immunisation Equity intelligence, community structures and accountability at the centre of zero-dose reduction, while strengthening existing government-led routine immunisation systems.

The Sultan Foundation’s effort is to help Zamfara reduce the over 269,241 zero-dose burdens in seven most-affected local government areas of the state.

The foundation and Z-TRACE are working, through collaboration with the GAVI CSO Fund manager mechanism, to reduce the number of zero-dose children by 30 per cent, or 80,772, by December 2027.

(NAN)