Leadership (Abuja)
27 August 2008
Attempts to immunize children against polio has run into a hitch in Katsina state, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
NAN correspondent, who monitored the exercise, which began on Aug. 23, reported that there was wide-spread rejection of polio vaccines in the state.
Areas where the rejection were more pronounced Faskari, Funtua, Kankara
and Bakori local governments.
At Malumfashi, Matazu, Musawa, Kafur, Sabuwa, Danja and Dandume local governments, the vaccinators were seen roaming the streets without children to immunise.
NAN gathered that on some occasions, community leaders had to intervene before people agreed to bring their children for immunisation.
"This is in spite of the sustained sensitisation campaigns embarked upon by the state government," a health official told NAN.
Some vaccinators, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN that people rejected the vaccines on the grounds that they had registered their children for routine immunisation in hospitals.
They also said that in the rural areas, some men left for their farms early in the morning and that their wives would not present children for immunisation without the consent of their
husbands.
NAN recalls that all the local governments in the state had organised sensitisation workshops for community leaders, health educators and health workers on the exercise.
However, some heads of health departments in the affected local governments told NAN that the pockets of rejection were normal.
They said children registered for routine immunisation need not go for another round of the exercise.(NAN)
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