DELTA State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan has sued for peaceful
coexistence among Nigerians to check the spread of polio virus.
The Governor who made the call weekend at Koko, Warri North local
government area of the state during the flag off of the 2014 second
quarter polio eradication sensitization campaign observed that no case of
polio virus has been reported in Delta State for more than five years.
However, he decried the situation where Nigeria is grouped among
war-ridden countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan as countries still
battling with cases of polio.
“I want to encourage us to be peaceful, we should also be vigilant to
ensure that those coming to our state from areas where there is crisis in
the country did not bring the virus to our state,” the Governor said.
While congratulating officials of the state Ministry of health and local
government councils’ chairmen for sustaining the campaign against polio,
the governor reiterated that mothers should ensure that they vaccinated
their children who are five years of age and below against polio and other
childhood diseases.
“We must ensure that we are up to date with our polio vaccines,” Dr
Uduaghan said, emphasising that parents must imbibe the habit of
cleanliness, especially, washing of hands and keeping the environment
clean.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Joseph Otumara in an address at the
occasion, said, “the polio eradication initiative which began in 1988 was
a collective public health effort involving the World Health Organisation,
UNICEF and the Rotary Foundation to eliminate all cases of polio infection
around the world.”
Dr Otumara stated that “if sufficient numbers of children in the community
are fully immunized against polio, the virus would be unable to find
susceptible children to infect and finally dies out.”
Goodwill messages were delivered by representatives of donor agencies and
stakeholders. Mrs. I E Oteri of the National Primary Healthcare
Development Agency lauded the Uduaghan administration for successfully
tackling the scourge of polio virus in the state.
Highpoint of the occasion was the administering of the polio vaccine on
children below five years by Governor Uduaghan assisted by his
commissioners and health workers.