How Babies Enjoy Immunisation In Ondo State

How Babies Enjoy Immunisation In Ondo State

As Nigeria battles to end child and maternal mortality, Ondo State is not relenting in its quest to end the scourge. A field trip by a Nigerian Tribune reporter, sponsored by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to Ondo, showed that the routine immunisation statistics in the state revealed the effort put in place by the government in collaboration with the development partners, UNICEF and others are yielding near desired results to eradicate the child mortality rate in the state.

According to UNICEF, Nigeria is the top country in the world in terms of the number of zero dose children (children who never received any single dose of vaccine since they were born).

A 37-year-old mother of four, Ronke Ajibola who is currently nursing a 20-day old baby girl, living in Ore, Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo, narrated that her newborn has not missed any routine immunisation schedule.

She added that none of her children ever missed a routine immunisation. Although she said some of her friends have reservations about the immunisation due to cultural and religious practices but it has never stopped her.

Another mother who is currently nursing her third child, Rahimat Ajani, also said that health workers come to their villages to sensitise parents of children from age 0 to 2 years on the danger of child fatality and the importance of immunisation to prevent such ugly situation.

“It is the joy of every mother to go into labour and see the results at the end of every hurdle crossed while having the newborn babies. Although, some people will tend to confuse us due to their ignorant, religious beliefs and cultural practices, what they say will not stop people like me from sustaining immunisation for my children whenever the need arises,” she narrated.

Also, a nursing mother, Bimpe Adejobi at one of the health centres in Irele, Irele Local Government Area who came to the facility for her second dose of Astrazenica COVID-19 vaccine said her child of nine months old would be immunised with the necessary vaccines.

“Early this year or some months back, we were told that the Federal Government has integrated the COVID-19 vaccination with the child immunisation to enable the government to vaccinate the children on their compulsory immunisation and at the same time to allow the mothers get their COVID-19 vaccine to kick out the pandemics simultaneously,” she said.

On maternal care, a 37-year-old hairstylist who lives in Ondo, Olabimpe Adeojo said she benefited from the state initiative to offer free health care to pregnant women which she disclosed that it is the government’s strategy to discourage mothers from patronising traditional birth attendants in which most of them offer quack service to unsuspecting pregnant women.

“Some women even benefited from the governor’s wife’s free programme to cater to the pregnant women to ensure their safe delivery and ultimately discouraged quackery during childbirth and ensure save delivery of newborns,” Adeojo explained.

Data obtained from the State Immunization Office in Akure showed that from January to March (first quarter) of 2022, no fewer than 734,111 children have benefited from Routine Immunization such as BCG, HPV, IPV 1, IPV 2, Measles, Measles 2, Men A, OPV 0 birth, OPV 1, OPV 2, OPV 3, PCV 1, PCV 2, PCV 3, Penta, Penta 3, Penta. 1, and Anti-Yellow Fever.

The State Immunization Officer, of the Ondo State Primary Healthcare Development Agency(OSPHCDA), Mrs Comfort Olagundoye, said although the state currently has smooth and effective immunisation records, challenges like cultural and religious practices are still a little setback to government’s efforts to immunize every child in the state.

According to Olagundoye, “Very few mothers and caregivers are ignorant of the immunisation exercise, as some rejected it due to their religious and cultural beliefs and some do not care about what happens to their children; some do not believe in the vaccine apart from the traditional medicine they are using”.

Olagundoye however said with day-to-day sensitisation and mass campaign over the years, the state currently records high immunisation rates.

“Currently we have Missing Opportunity Programme ( MOP) that is ongoing, supported by the commissioner and the state government which allows mothers to have access to immunisation anywhere they go in the state,” she added.

Similarly, the Permanent Secretary of OSPHCDA, Dr Akanbiemu Adegoke said that Ondo State is one of the best when it comes to immunisation in the South-West.

“UNICEF certified us as one of the leading and best nine in immunisation in the South-West and in the entire country and that is to tell you that the government and the governor are supporting the programme to ensure every child in the state gets the required antigen whenever the need arises,” he said.

On staff strength, the Permanent Secretary of the OSPHCDA, said the exodus of health care workers is an issue all over the world and it is not peculiar to Ondo State.

Adegoke said some health workers are retiring and some have left for greener pastures abroad, however, the government recently employed 800 health care workers and were immediately injected into the health care system in the state.

“It is a continuous exercise and the government is addressing the issue of human resources in health care and it will continue because no government in the world can completely fill the human resources gap. Not even in advanced countries,” he explained.