Thursday, May 28, 2009              

Govt deploys 57 million doses of polio vaccine nationwide
By Chukwuma Muanya

IN a renewed effort to stop the transmission of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) in the country by reaching unvaccinated children, the Federal Government has deployed 57 million doses of trivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for a nationwide campaign holding between tomorrow and Sunday May 31, 2009.

Trivalent OPV can take care of the three types of WPV, that is WPV-1, WPV-2 and WPV-3.

According to the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) report, WPV1 and WPV-3 are the predominant polio types circulating in Nigeria.

The government plans to administer the vaccines using 180,000 health workers, 140,000 vaccinators, 3,400 supervisors in 33,000 posts. It has also scheduled sub-national campaigns for July, August and October 2009.

The government has also adopted new strategies, including engagement of political and religious leadership, and civil societies; publishing areas covered, successes and failures of states; revision of guidelines for the conduct of immunisation campaign; and creation of special teams to vaccinate children on the streets.

In an interview with The Guardian, Director-General, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Mohammed Ali Pate, said: "Right now, we have about 57 million doses of trivalent OPV to cover the estimated number of children we are going to reach, including wastages and unforeseen figures.

"The coverage target is the 36 states and the FCT with the deployment of over 180,000 health workers, using 33,000 posts. In all, plus government and independent workers as partners, we will deploy about 3,400 monitors and supervisors. The vaccinators and the recorders are the implementers. On the whole, there are about 140,000 to 145,000 of them throughout the country."