Anambra targets 2.54m children, women for immunisation By Uzoma Nzeagwu, Awka.

Anambra State Government plans to immunise
2.54 million children and pregnant women in the
second round of its Maternal, Newborn and Child
Health Week (MNCHW) programme.
Addressing newsmen yesterday in Awka,
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joe Akabuike,
explained that the exercise, which will kick off
today (Tuesday), is aimed at reducing neonatal,
maternal and child morbidity and mortality.
Giving the breakdown, Akabuike said 900,970
children within the age range of six and 59
months would receive vitamin A; 211,993
children between zero and 11 months, oral polio
vaccines (OPR), Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine
(PCV), Pentavalent Vaccine and Inactivated
Vaccine (IPV), while 1,43095 pregnant women
and women of chil-bearing age would be given
tetanus toxiod.
According to him, the objectives include to ensure
the sustenance of break in the transmission of
wild polio virus, scale up integration and delivery
of other child survival intervention, boost routine
immunisation coverage as well as register births
in the state.
Akabuike added that other cost-effective
preventive and curative interventions would be
delivered during the period, including nutrition
screening, counseling for malnourished children,
de-worming of children, antenatal care, care of
new born, management of treated Nets (LLINS) to
prevent malaria among others.
While insisting that all the vaccines are free and
safe, the commissioner called on care givers to
avail themselves of the interventions, even as he
advised pregnant as well as women of child-
bearing age to visit the nearest health facilities to
access services.
He said, the programme organised by the
National Primary Health Care Development
Agency in collaboration with the state would be
flagged off by Governor Willie Obiano at Obeledu
today and would run till Friday, December 11,
2015.
He said locations for the immunisation would
include government health centres, churches,
markets, schools, mosques, among others.
He added that caregivers and women of child-
bearing age/mothers should come with
immunisation cards.
According to him the results of three key
interventions recorded in the first round (in the
June 2015 MNCHW) include: Vitamin A-96 per
cent, Iron, 34 per cent and de-worming 32 per
cent.