The Delta State Government says it has established and strengthened health facilities in its 25 Local Government areas to ensure that the target of permanent eradication of polio disease in the state is attained.

The measure, according to Dr Winful Gbubemi, Director, Primary Health Care Development Agency in the state, accounts for zero report of the disease recorded in the state since 2010.

Gbubemi, who spoke in an interview with The Tide in Asaba, said the state hospitals and health centres were fully fortified to handle any outbreak of polio and other diseases.

He said that every facility and manpower needed for all immunisation exercises had been provided in all the health centres, which he added, had been replicated in nearly every ward in the state.

Gbubemi said that government’s intention was to ensure accessibility of the facilities to all rural dwellers, stressing that the state was determined to be recording 100 per cent coverage in all the areas during any exercise.

“Apart from the routine immunisation, when we visit rural communities to vaccinate children, we also carry out campaigns where we give health talks to mothers to encourage them to send their children for vaccination.

“The state is doing a lot in that regard. Health centers are springing up in every nook and cranny of the state, every ward now has, at least, one health centre.

“So what we are trying to do is to ensure that mothers take advantage of these health centres which government has provided in their locality, to vaccinate their children and also access other healthcare intervention programmes.’’

Gbubemi disclosed that the state had set up a surveillance team that was charged with the responsibility of monitoring children with “weakness of the limb”.