Polio: EU commits N4b to immunisation in Nigeria

November 3, 2015 Omoniyi Osadare Health 0

On 29 July, a child receives a dose of oral polio vaccine during the UNICEF-supported measles and polio immunization campaign under way in the Ifo refugee camp in North Eastern Province, near the Kenya-Somalia border. The camp for Somalia refugees is among three that comprise the Dadaab camps, located near the town of Dadaab in Garissa District. By 2 August 2011, the crisis in the Horn of Africa affecting primarily Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti continues, with a worsening drought, rising food prices and an ongoing conflict in Somalia. More than 12 million people are threatened by the regions worst drought in 60 years. Somalia faces one of the worlds most severe food security crises as it continues to endure an extended humanitarian emergency, with tens of thousands fleeing into Kenya and Ethiopia. More than 10,000 Somalis a week are now arriving in the Dadaab camps in north-eastern Kenya, where aid partners are struggling to meet the needs of 400,000 people. In drought-affected areas of Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti, some 500,000 severely malnourished children are at imminent risk of dying, while a further 1.6 million moderately malnourished children and the wider-affected population are at high risk of disease. In northern Kenya, more than 25 per cent of children suffer from global acute malnutrition. UNICEF, together with Governments, UN, NGO and community partners, is supporting a range of interventions and essential services, especially for the displaced and for refugees, including feeding programmes, immunization mass vaccination campaigns are now underway in drought-affected parts of Kenya and Somalia and other health outreach, as well as access to safe water and to improve sanitation. In Kenya, the Ministry of Health, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have reached 290,000 children with polio and measles vaccinations in refugee host communities near the Dadaab camps. UNICEF is providing the vaccines, as well as deworming tablets and vitamin A (to boost childrens immunity). A similar campaign is now under way to immunize children in the Dadaab camps. A joint United Nations appeal for humanitarian assistance for the region requires US$2.5 billion, less than half of which has been committed.

THE European Union (EU) has spent N4 billion on the country’s immunisation programme for this year, it was learnt yesterday.

The support came under the EU Support to Immunisation Governance in Nigeria (EU-SIGN).

Training, Contracting Adviser and Procurement Expert for the EU-SIGN, Aminata Sidibe, explained that the support was part of EU’s determination to ensure that Nigeria overcome the disease and obtain the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) certification as a polio-free nation by 2017.

Sidibe, who spoke at the Bi-annual Review Meeting of 23 states and the FCT, which benefited from the fund in Abuja, said: “The EU is committing €150 million into the programme. For this specific programme estimate, N4.3 billion has been committed.”

Anna McAthur, director, CONSEIL SANTE, an organisation through which the EU funds the SIGN programme in Nigeria, said: “The EU-SIGN actually came in at real good time for Nigeria because we’ve just got to the elimination of polio, and we are working towards eradication of polio. Government has set up state primary health care agencies and has advisory body in each state.

“It is good for Nigeria to strengthen its primary health care agencies and strengthen its immunisation, which will help to make polio eradication in Nigeria a success.”

The Director of Department of Logistics and Health Commodities at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Mustapha Zubair Mahmud, said the nation must maintain the de-listing for the next two years to enable it get certification.

“We must do all we can to maintain a polio-free country up to 2017, so that we are certified free of polio,” he said.

Focal Person for the EU-SIGN in Nigeria Dr. Adamu Dawud said the highlight of the meeting was to re-emphasise on the nation’s routine immunisation.

The WHO recently delisted Nigeria from the three polio-endemic nations. The others remaining are Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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