By Murtala Muhammad
Bauchi State Primary Health Care Board has deployed about four thousand trained health personnel to administer the newly introduced injectable malaria vaccine to children, aged five to twenty one months.
The deployed health workers would work in all the one thousand, two hundred and fifty primary healthcare centres across twenty local government areas of the state.
The Executive Chairman of the Board, Dr Rilwanu Mohammed who disclosed this at the flagg off of Malaria Vaccine Introduction into Routine Immunisation, held at Urban Maternity in Bauchi metropolis, said the vaccine would be administered to the children in four different doses.
Dr Rilwanu Mohammed represented by the Board’s Director for Disease Control and Immunisation, Dr Adamu Muhammad, explained that the first dose would be given to children at five months, while the second and third dose would be administered in four weeks interval each, and the last dose would be done six months later.
He said to ensure massive community mobilisation across the state, series of sensitisation meetings were held with different stakeholders, such as journalists, civic society organisations, traditional and religious leaders.
In a goodwill message, the Chief of UNICEF, Bauchi Field Office, Dr Nuzhat Rafique said in Nigeria, Bauchi is the third most prevalent state when it comes to malaria cases, hence the need for all stakeholders to come together and fight the disease.
Dr Rafique said UNICEF would support Bauchi with three hundred and fifty doses of the vaccine together with the necessary logistics to enable the state reach the two hundred and eighty thousand target smoothly.
She appealed to Mama2Mama support group and Fathers for Good Health to help in mobilising people from the grassroots to ensure the uptake of the vaccine.
World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in Bauchi State, Dr Yarima Kucici disclosed that Nigeria’s statistics show that 260 million cases of malaria are being recorded with 610 thousand deaths annually, lamenting that out of every four children in the country one dies of malaria disease.
Also speaking, the representative of the Gates and Aliko Dangote Foundations, Rabi’u Fagge reiterated that Nigeria accounts for 27 percent of global malaria cases and its prevalence in Bauchi state is at 32 percent, the highest in the north east subregion.
He said the figure is five times the malaria prevalence of Borno state, almost three times to that of Adamawa and almost twice the disease’s prevalence of Gombe state.
Rabi’u Fagge who described the situation as alarming, called on parents, traditional and religious leaders to rally round the state government to ensure every eligible child is vaccinated.
He reassured commitment of the two foundations to continue to partner with the Bauchi state government towards ending malaria and other diseases.
The event was attended by government representative, Implementing Partners, traditional and religious leaders, civil society organisations, Mama2Mama and Fathers for Good Health support groups.
