A Consultant Virologist, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, has urged government at all levels to ensure provision of the materials and conducive environment needed to eradicate polio disease out of the country.
Tomori, also the Chairman Biovaccines Nig Ltd., gave the advice in an interview in commemoration of the 2024 World Polio Day.
World Polio Day is celebrated annually on Oct. 24, to raise awareness about polio vaccination, a vital measure to protect children under-five from this infectious disease.
He said there was a need for adequate funding of the health sector, especially before and during polio vaccination campaigns.
According to him, the health workers administering the vaccines need to be provided with adequate resources, equipment, vehicles and other materials needed to make their work easy.
He said that lack of access to needed resources like vehicles were part of the challenges limiting the vaccination personnel from reaching to the remote villages during immunisation exercise.
Tomori decried that Nigeria still faces challenges in getting all eligible children vaccinated.
The virologist emphasised the need for the government to provide a conducive environment for those vaccinating to vaccinate in peace without any security threat as ‘fear of harm’ was a major challenge limiting proper vaccination coverage.
“The Nigerian government need to improve its commitment to ensuring that polio is completely eradicated by providing the conducive environment to ensure that people who are vaccinating vaccinate in peace, with no security problem.
“There is need to provide the health workers who are vaccinating with all the needed materials.
“Each of the unit vaccinating should be well equipped with vehicles and whatever mode of transportation so as to ease their work.
“Going from house to house and from street to street to vaccinate and you are walking under the scorching sun, how many can you do?
“So, let the conducive environment that supports immunisation activities be provided,” Tomori said.
The professor of virology urged health workers who vaccinate to render the services with more commitment and honesty.
He lamented that vaccination personnel sometimes emptied the vaccination kits on the ground and report that they had put them in children’s mouths.
Tomori, therefore, advised vaccination personnel “who might vaccinate only five children and come back to report that they had vaccinated 500 children”, to desist from such act.
He said that such acts compromised the health of children who do not get vaccinated.
He emphasised the need for training and education of the vaccination personnel to make them understand the importance of their job.
He said: “Sometimes, the vaccination personnel are not educated to know how important their work is.
“Vaccination is life-saving; so, people administering the vaccines should do the job with a lot of commitment, integrity and honesty.
“To ensure a polio-free future for everyone, efforts must continue to maintain high immunisation coverage, implement high-quality surveillance to detect any presence of the virus, and prepare to respond in the event of an outbreak,” Tomori said.
NAN
