More than 60 million dollars
would be required by Nigeria to prosecute the proposed first and second phases
of the national measles elimination programme, said a report.
The exercise is expected to cover
not less than 54 million persons nationwide.
This is contained in the report
of the first 2015 meeting of the Inter-agency Coordinating Committee (ICC)
obtained in Abuja on Wednesday.
The report was presented to the
committee by Dr Nneka Onwu, Head, and Supplementary Immunisation Activities at
the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).
The report indicated that GAVI,
an international non-governmental organisation, and other partners were
expected to provide over 20 million dollars out of the needed sum for the
exercise.
It said the first phase of the
follow up campaign in the 19 northern states and the FCT was being planned for
Sept. 2015.
The report said the second phase
of the campaign which would expectedly be conducted in October, this year,
would cover the remaining 17 southern states of the federation.
It also said the campaign would
cover over 54 million people within the age bracket of nine months to 10 years.
It said the decision to step up
Nigeria’s campaign against measles was in line with the country’s commitment to
the global community plan to achieve measles elimination by 2020.
The report said the Federal
Government acknowledged the need to achieve pre-elimination and elimination
targets by 2015 and 2020.
The report put the total
suspected measles cases in 651 local government areas in 36 states and the FCT
at 9,290.
According to the report, there
are 4,494 confirmed cases from 317 local government areas and 67 deaths caused
by measles, while the age group of most affected children was nine to 59
months.
It said the NPHDCA and other
stakeholders had adopted a vaccination strategy that entailed fixed and mobile
equipment, utilising established polio structures in security compromised
areas.
The ICC said in the report that
the overall goal of the project was to eliminate the disease in the country
while the objective was to minimise outbreaks.
According to the report, the
objectives of the proposed measles campaign include minimising outbreaks by
ensuring the highest quality coverage of 95 per cent in all the 774 local
government areas in the country.
Also follow up campaign for the
elimination of measles was recommended by a technical advisory group
constituted by the federal government.
The last measles Supplementary
Immunisation Activities was conducted in 2013 following the recommendation of
the group. (NAN)
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