Anambra State government, through the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, ANSPHCDA has commenced the second phase of the integrated measles immunization campaign, targeted at covering four Local Government Areas affected by the flood.
The second phase which started on the 16th of November, 2024, and will end on the 26th of November, covers Anambra East, Anambra West, Ogbaru and Ayamelum LGAs.
The campaign is a bi-annual event, implemented by 24 states of the federation, targeted at immunizing children nine to fifty-nine months with a potent measles vaccine.
Speaking with our Correspondent in Awka, Mrs Edith Onwuka, the State Immunization Officer, SIO, Anambra State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, said during the pre-event planning and other pre-implementation activities, the agency proactively divided the LGAs into two based on their peculiarities.
According to her, Anambra East, Anambra West, Ogbaru, and Ayamelum, which had flooding challenges that limited accessibility to the hard-to-reach areas, were set for later, while the campaign started with the other 17 LGAs.
Onwuka revealed that the campaign started with the other 17 LGAs on the 6th of November and ended on the 17th November, and recorded a huge success as no LGA scored below 95 percent in the immunization coverage.
“Although we had some challenges which included vaccine rejection and non-compliance due to beliefs and misconceptions, logistics issues, and inadequate manpower, we were able to surmount them.
“Also, the campaign was successful in phase one because qualified health workers were used,” she said.
Emphasizing that the goal of the state was to reach every eligible child irrespective of where they are in the state, the ANSPHCDA SIO said the second phase covering the four remaining LGAs started on Saturday 16th, and would end on the 26th of November.
She said the LGAs were regarded as hard-to-reach areas and provisions had been made for the immunization teams to be able to access the areas.
On suspected cases of measles reported in Awka North LGA where the vaccination was just concluded, Onwuka noted that some of the suspected cases might not be, informing that many illnesses manifested the same symptoms as measles but when subjected to laboratory testing, they come out negative for measles.
She, however, said the state Disease Surveillance would be alerted to do case investigation and collect samples, assuring that if the cases were confirmed, a mop-up exercise would take place to address the gap.
She further explained that taking measles immunization did not mean that children might not have symptoms of measles, but said it would ensure that the disease does not pose any danger.
According to her, the immunization is done annually to give the communities herd immunity to ward off sicknesses when they come.
She therefore urged parents to always make their children available for immunization activities as they are for their own benefit.
