RSG Tasks Parents On Vaccination … As Immunization Begins, Thursday

Ahead the 4-day National Immunization Plus Days (NIPDs) slated to begin this January, the Rivers State Government has called on parents to ensure the vaccination of their children and wards to boost their immunity against the common children diseases.

The Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr Sampson Parker, in a statement said the call had become necessary following the rampant cases of such children killer diseases including tuberculosis and yellow fever.

Parker stated that all eligible children who are between the ages of 0-5 years would be vaccinated with the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) during the period the exercise whether or not they have been vaccinated several times before. He said that children needed multiple doses of the oral vaccine to develop full immunity to the diseases.

He assured that health workers in the state would move from house-to-house to vaccinate all children with two drops of the OPV.

The commissioner said that apart from health centres, the exercise would also take place at churches, schools, markets, mosques and farms during the period, and urged parents to make their wards available for the officers to vaccinate them against whooping cough, measles and other killer diseases.

Parker, however, assured the public of the safety, potency and effectiveness of the vaccines, pointing out that the immunization exercise is free.