About 2.5 million children are targeted in the third round of house-to-house polio immunisation in Borno State, an official disclosed.

The Borno Coordinator of World Health Organisation, Dr Ibrahim Salisu, made this known on Monday in Maiduguri at the inauguration of the Polio Outbreak Response (OBR) Vaccination Campaign.

The vaccination camping was organised by the Borno Primary Health Care Development Agency in collaboration with WHO and other partners.

Mr Salisu lauded the Borno government’s commitment to quality health care despite the recent devastating flood incident.

Mr Salisu said, “We are gathered here to flag off the House-to-House polio vaccination campaign targeting about 2, 556, 423 eligible children for polio vaccination across the state. Early this year, we implemented two rounds of vaccination campaigns to respond to a polio outbreak with remarkable successes. This is yet another opportunity for us to vaccinate our children, protect them, and interrupt the transmission of the vaccine-derived polio virus. For this campaign, WHO has supported the government of Borno in providing technical support, data tools, and training to 3,903 vaccination team members.”

According to him, the team comprised 1,935 house-to-house vaccination teams, 622 fixed post vaccinators, 368 special teams to vaccinate children outside houses, streets, markets and open spaces as well as 45 Reaching Every Settlement (RES) teams.

He said: “The RES team is a strategy for accessing children in security-compromised settlements with the support of hunters and the Civilian Joint Task Force. We also have 960 Directly Observed Polio Vaccination (DOPV) teams, they vaccinate children in high-risk and densely populated communities. WHO is also paying for the logistics and stipend for all the vaccination teams in the 27 local government areas.”

Mr Salisu urged the vaccination teams, traditional and religious leaders to ensure that eligible children were vaccinated.

In his message, the Executive Secretary, Borno Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Mohammed Arab, said the initiative had signified a critical advancement to enhance the healthy population, particularly that of children under five years.

Mr Arab, who spoke on the importance of polio vaccination, lauded the effective role of WHO and other partners in containing the disease.

“The polio vaccination in Borno State is a landmark achievement in our public health efforts. It underscores our commitment to interrupt transmission of the virus and protect the health of our population. I urge the health professionals, community leaders, parents, guardians and all other stakeholders to support the polio vaccination among other primary health care services. Together, we can interrupt transmission, save lives, and build a healthier future for our children,” Mr Arab said.

(NAN)