Kwara unveils polio vaccination campaign, targeting one million children

The Kwara State Government has announced a new polio vaccination campaign aimed at reaching at least one million children across the state’s 16 local government areas.

Speaking in Ilorin on Tuesday, the Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Nusirat Elelu, revealed that the agency has begun a three-day Local Immunization Days initiative.

The programme is being conducted at Primary Health Care facilities and outreach posts across Kwara’s 193 wards, running from Monday, October 21 to Wednesday, October 23, 2024.

“Immunisation provides protection against life-threatening vaccine-preventable diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhoea, influenza, meningitis, and certain cancers, and it can significantly reduce post-neonatal under-five mortality,” Elelu said.

She explained that the routine immunisation program will cover children under two years of age, with over 300,000 children expected to receive life-saving vaccines in just three days.

Elelu also disclosed that a separate round of outbreak response to the circulating Mutant Variant of Polio is scheduled for October 26-29, 2024, targeting over a million children to prevent childhood paralysis from poliovirus.

She urged parents, caregivers, religious leaders, schools, and Quranic institutions to ensure that eligible children are available for vaccination, as teams will be moving through homes, markets, religious centres, and schools.

“All children aged zero to five years are expected to be vaccinated, regardless of their previous vaccination status,” Elelu emphasised, reassuring that the vaccine is safe, effective, and free from the risk of overdose.