No fewer than 600,000 children under the age of five years as well as 200,000 pregnant women and nursing mothers are expected to be immunized in Ekiti State. The exercise would be carried out in all the 310 government-owned Primary Health Centres across the state.
The Director of Primary Health Care in the Ekiti State Primary Health Development Agency, Joshua Ileke, a medical doctor disclosed this in Ado-Ekiti. The programme which is part of the maternal, newborn and child health week in the state would be extended to all public and private nursery and primary schools to ensure all eligible children of school age are captured.
According to him, alongside the regular immunization of children against childhood killer diseases, Vitamin A supplements and deworming tablets will be administered on the children while parents of children whose births were not registered would have the opportunity to do so.
Ileke said the programme would also afford health workers the opportunity to educate nursing mothers on the advantages of regular hand washing especially before and after every meal towards ensuring constant diseases.
Also speaking in the same vein, the Special Assistant to the Ekiti State Governor on Information and Civic Orientation, Lanre Ogunsuyi solicited the support of traditional rulers, religious leaders and heads of public and private nursery and primary schools to assist in the sensitization efforts so that the weeklong programme would achieve the set objectives.
Ogunsuyi urged Nursing mothers and pregnant women in the state to take advantage of the exercise to access healthcare for themselves and their children during the weeklong event .
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He said that the call was imperative as the Fayose-Administration is fully committed to reducing maternal and child mortality to its barest minimum in the state .
The Special Assistant said the target of reaching 600,000 babies which is 20 percent of the state’s population and 200,000 nursing mothers and pregnant women was quite achievable with the cooperation of all the all the relevant stakeholders
