By Eunice Orike
Federal Capital Territory Administration of the Primary Health Care Board (FCT-PHCB)has collaborated with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to prevent the menace of measles, polio, cancer involving teenage girls and women and othe children related diseases in the territory.
Acting executive secretary of the FCT-PHCB Ruqayya Wamakko, disclosed this to newsmen during a one day media orientation for the Integrated Supplemental Immunization Activities (SIAs) against measles, scheduled to hold on 26th October to 2nd November 2024 in Abuja.
Wamakko advised parents of young children to take advantage of the Supplemental Immunization Activities SIAs to immunized their children.
She also explained that prevention is better than cure, that no child should have deformity or die when there are vaccines to prevent that.
On his part, the acting director, primary health care, FCT-PHCB Dr Okoli Nicholas, called on the media give out the right information to the public to ensure the success of the SIAs, saying the vaccines are safe, free and available.
“There are so many interventions by the Federal Government of Nigeria and development partners are bringing in the health space and if the right information is not dished out we will have a backlash effect, and an intervention which is intended to save lives will not be taken by the population”, he said.
Nicholas further hinted that the vaccines are safe and available in the primary health care facilities, adding that they are safe, free and readily available and every child is expected to visit nine times.
Earlier speaking, UNICEF country head of Social and Behaviour Change, Mrs Margaret Soyemi hailed the press as partners to pass the right messages to stop preventable deaths of children when are available services that can prevent that.
She emphasised that UNICEF immunization is a key deliverable for children because a lot of diseases that affect children can actually be prevented with vaccines.
” There is no need for a child to die when there are available services that can prevent the deaths of children.
“We can not put these messages out there without you, that’s why it is very important that in this integrated campaign or integrated supplemental immunization activities, you are very much part of us,
“Let us encourage parents of young children to take advantage of these services and campaigns to vaccinate their children so that tomorrow we will our healthy Nigerian children all over the place”, she said.