Polio: NIPDs Targets 1m Children In Rivers

The first round of the 2019 National Immunisation Plus Days (NIPDs) in Rivers State is targeted at immunizing about 1,601,692 children out of the estimated 8, 0008,465 population of the state.
The state immunization officer, Dr Inwon Joseph Urang, who stated this in an exclusive interview during the on-going immunization exercise, stated that it is targeted at children under 5 years.
While noting that NIPDs is a programme aimed at eradicating polio by raising the immunity of all children in the country, Dr Urang stated that preparations for the successful execution of the programme was such that “before the commencement on Saturday, the vaccines were made available in all designated areas of the 23 Local Government Areas in the state.
“Everything was done and put in place to achieve the purpose of the programme, knowing that polio does not have any particular medication for treatment, hence prevention is key”, he said.
As at day-3 of the programme, several successes were recorded across the LGAs in the state with only a few hitches in such area as Emohua LGA.
The hitch in Emohua was found to be due to an initial misconception by the youths, who felt they were to be paid before the children would be immunized. The situation was promptly resolved, and the programme commenced in earnest.
Meanwhile, the programme which was initially scheduled to last for four days (Saturday to Tuesday), has been extended to six days. It will now end tomorrow (Thursday).

Sogbeba Dokubo