Anambra Partners UNICEF On Maternal, Child Health

The Anambra State
Government says it is partnering with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and five other technical stakeholders to promote maternal and child health.
The other partners are the World Bank, WHO, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, the media and line ministries.
The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Lawrence Ikeako, told newsmen in Awka that a five-day maternal, newborn and child health week had been planned with the partners from December  2 to December 6 to realise the goal.
Ikeato said the programme was aimed at achieving the highest possible coverage of routine vaccination, Vitamin ‘A’ and other child survival interventions.
Ikeako said all the vaccines were free and safe and urged pregnant women and care givers to avail themselves of the opportunity and make sure their children received the interventions.
According to him, the objectives are to give Vitamin ‘A’ supplement to children from birth to 59 months, ensure the sustenance of break in transmission of wild polio virus, scale up integration and delivery of other child survival interventions.
He said the target audience and antigens included children under one year for BCG, HBV and others while nine-month-old children would be given measles and yellow fever vaccines.
The commissioner also said that children between 12 months and 59 months would be de-wormed while pregnant/women of child bearing would get anti-tetanus vaccines.
He said that during the period, other cost-effective interventions would be delivered, including nutrition screening and counseling for malnourished children.
Others are antenatal care, de-worming of children, family planning, iron foliate administration to pregnant mothers, birth registration and HIV and AIDS prevention information to young people and women.
Ikeako urged the people to come along with their immunisation cards to ensure proper records.