Lagos state government on Friday said no fewer than 3.9 million children, aged between one day and five years, are expected to be immunized during a integrated measles campaign exercise, according to Jide Idris, state commissioner for health.
The PM newspaper reported on Saturday that Idris disclosed this at a press briefing to herald the beginning of the weeklong campaign in the state, adding that the campaign was informed by the need to reduce infant and child morbidity and mortality rate in measles.
According to him, it is urgent to interrupt the spread of wild poliovirus transmission among children aged between one day and five years.
The commissioner said to ensure the success of the campaign and the goal of ensuring that all children in the age bracket are immunized, many training workshops have been organized to strengthen the capacity of relevant health workers in micro-planning and social mobilization across the state.
He explained that measles, which is a highly infectious disease caused by the measles virus, is one of the six child killer diseases, adding it kills and leaves some children with severe lifelong disabilities, like blindness, brain damage and deafness.
” The combined measles-polio campaign offers us a great opportunity to access our children, reduce child mortality and morbidity in measles as well as interrupt wild polio virus transmission among children less than five years,” he added.
Idris also pointed out that an estimated one million deaths occurred globally yearly from measles infection alone, with Nigeria accounting for a significant proportion of the deaths arising from the infection and its complications.
The commissioner urged all parents/guardians to ensure the immunization of their wards so as to protect them from this vaccine-preventable disease.