The Governor of Kano State, Northwest Nigeria, Alhaji Abba Yusuf, on Sunday, restated his administration’s commitment to end polio and other childhood communicable diseases, as it collaborates with partners to vaccinate 3.6 million children in the state.
Yusuf made the pledge in Kano at the weekend while flagging off the 2024 polio eradication campaign in the Dawakin Kudu Local Government Area of the state.
Following the state government’s determination to intensify vaccination efforts, he disclosed that the government would collaborate with local communities to reach out to every part of the state to ensure that all children were vaccinated.
He added that the state government would continue to ensure vigilance to ensure routine immunisation among children in order to give them the necessary protection.
“Our collective goal and target is to immunise not less than 3.6 million children against poliomyelitis. We vaccinators will go from house to house to ensure that all under-five children are immunised against polio. In the process, we will also sensitise parents to the need to make their children available for immunisation so as not to be liabilities to them but assets,” Yusuf said.
He urged parents to make their wards available for immunisation, as well as maintain good hygiene.
“The state government is committed to programmes and policies that would improve their well-being,” the governor stressed.
The chairman of the state task force on polio eradication, who is also the Deputy Governor, Comrade Aminu Gwarzo, thanked the various partners for their commitment to ending polio not just in Kano but in the entire country.
He reiterated the state government’s commitment to cooperate with donor agencies toward eradicating poliomyelitis.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Abubakar Yusuf, said Dawakin Kudu was chosen as the flag-off location due to its low routine immunisation coverage.
The country representative of the World Health Organisation, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo Walter, represented by the organisation’s State Coordinator, Dr. Mayana Sanusi, said, “WHO deployed 484 field volunteers, 68 Enhanced Independent Monitors, 45 Local Government Facilitators, 19 Assistant Public Health Officers and six Management Support Team to provide technical support to the vaccination team and ensure that no child is left behind.”
