20 December 2007
opinion
Lagos — It is not for nothing that we are described as a third world country. That measles, an air-borne viral disease, which many countries of the world have been able to combat with the array of preventive vaccines, is yet ravaging and even killing as much as 200 children and more in one local Government area, is a veritable proof of how slow we have made progress, even on basic health matters.
Media reports have shown that Measles attacked Zaria Local Government Area of Kaduna State, early this month. So wide spread was the infection that the General Hospital in Kofanga alone admitted over 800 children. As at the last count, over 200 children had been killed by the pandemic. This is as alarming as it is embarrassing.
It is a wonder that measles, at this age of global health revolution, can yet attack and snuff the life off a whooping number of 200 children in Nigeria, when a litany of vaccines have long been developed in the medical world.
Even in basic ante and post natal clinical routines, nursing mothers are expected to take their babies for BCG immunization schemes when the baby is four or so months old. The BCG vaccine is expected to immunize the child from the six deadly diseases of the world including measles.
Every year, governments at the State and Federal levels vote huge sums of money for the immunization exercise. Sometimes, the exercise is carried out with some fanfare.
That children could thus be yet vulnerable to the disease can be as a result of either failure (if not refusal) to go for such immunization, or that the immunization exercise itself was not carried out in the local government area.
Indeed, there are some snippets of information that even when the symptoms of the disease-sneezing and coughing--- were first noticed, the request by the Primary Health Care unit of the local government for more anti-measles vaccines was ignored.
But the question that arises is whether or not during such nationwide immunization exercises, the people of Zaria Local Government Area were excluded? What happened to all the votes meant for the exercise in that Local Government Area? Where was the surveillance crew of the Health Care unit? With a notion (though wrong) that the disease is seasonal, should the medical team in the area not be more vigilant and "combat ready"? Why was the medical team not proactive enough in taming the early outbreak of the disease? No doubt, the levity with which this all-urgent matter was treated resulted in the heavy casualty recorded.
However, it is common knowledge that either for some arcane cultural or even religious reasons, some persons are wont to deny themselves or their kids the opportunities of appropriate medicare. And this exposes them to great health risk, as may have been proven in this instance.
But even if this is the case, it is all the more reason why agencies like the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in collaboration with traditional institutions should embark on massive public enlightenment of the citizenry with a view to educating them on the imperatives and benefits of such immunization exercises.
For communities where there is little education, the traditional heads should also serve to dispel unfounded fears about orthodox medical treatments. They could also serve to educate the communities on basic health tips like symptoms of such deadly diseases, as well as what to do when they notice such symptoms.
Either through unfounded phobia, poor education, ill-digested religious inhibitions, misunderstanding of the effects of immunization, some parents have stayed away from orthodox medicare, albeit with dire consequences.
The people must also be discouraged from taking chances in the name of leaving everything to fate. They must rise above mundane and unhelpful practices and embrace basic measures aimed at preventing them from falling prey to avoidable diseases.
In all, government must be seen to be saving a people even from themselves by what they (government) do, how they do and when they do.
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