NIGERIA. Sokoto State: In Sokoto state, around 1,000 new cases of measles were reported between January and March of this year.
The cases were reported across the state’s 23 local government districts, according to Ali Inname, the state’s Commissioner of Health. He further added that due to a lack of adequate vaccination, children had died of the disease in three distinct communities in Tambuwal Local Government areas of the state: Dan Madi, Kaurare, and Aljannare.
As a result, Inname recommends residents of the state to instil in their children the habit of getting them immunised, as vaccination prevents children from contracting measles.
“Cases of children who were unvaccinated were more severe than that of those who were vaccinated,” Inname noted.
“However, the Sokoto state government’s provision of about 500 centers for regular immunization within the state, despite that some children have been denied access to immunization by their parents,” Inname said.
Inname further stated that medical personnel have been spread across the most severe area where the cases occur.
“In Sokoto state, we’ve 500 centers that are providing routine immunization and we have adequate vaccines. But we have some communities that are still not responsive to our immunization campaigns”.
Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) stated that Sokoto state is one of the most severe cases of a measles epidemic. And it is also among the states with the lowest records of immunization.
The United Nations Children Fund estimated that about one-tenth of children in Sokoto state have been immunized against early childhood diseases such as measles.
In 2017, the Sokoto state government launched a program aimed at putting down the outbreak of measles. It also initiated a movement to immunization of children against measles that targeted about a million children. But despite all the efforts by the state government to see that the state is free of measles, the infant mortality rate in the state is as high as 78 per 1,000 live births.
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