..Mayor’s Wife administer Polio Vaccines at Idemili North, Encourage Mothers to Immunize their Children
By Uzo Ugwunze
The newly Inaugurated Idemili North LGA Taskforce on Primary Healthcare (LTFPHC) has been tasked to supervise and ensure success of the ongoing first round National Immunization Plus Days (NIPDs) against Circulating Variant Polio virus Type 2 (CVPV2) infection and other public health programs all over the nooks and crannies of the 10 communities of the LGA.
Speaking during inauguration at the Council Secretariat,Ogidi, The Supervisory Councilor for Health, INLGA, Dr. Nkem Okeke said that the essence of inaugurating the taskforce is to make sure that all public health programs were implemented and reach the desired recipients without any form of resistance or difficulty.
“The LGA Taskforce on PHC were mandated to ensure a seamless and effective coverage of the NIPDs Polio Immunization exercise to ensure there are less drop outs as compared to previous statistics gathered during the last immunization.
“Idemili North dropped from 1500 to 700. That was a remarkable improvement. We migrated from Red bloc to Green bloc. We are looking forward to achieving zero non compliants after this very immunization exercise.
“However there are factors you may consider that causes drop outs seeing that Idemili North is densely populated and very large population but with the help of the LTFPHC comprising of resource persons across different sectors of the society we must achieve zero non compliants or drop outs in Idemili North henceforth,” assured Okeke.
The trio of the Deputy Mayor, Lady Phina Onwuachu, HOD/ Director PHC INLGA, Mrs Chinwe Okeke and the SMO/Health Educator, Mrs OkpalaNwankwo Chinememma Ukamaka in their separate speeches encouraged the taskforce team to do whatever is within their capacity to ensure effective sensitization concerning the NIPDs on polio immunization and other public health programs.
The recommended members of the State level Task Forces should include the following
Deputy mayor
Supervisory councilor for health
Director of PHC
HOD social welfare department
LGA Education secretary
Information officer
HOD Finance department
Representative, National Orientation Agency
Representative of Faith Based Organizations
Representative from the media in the LGA
Representative of traditional institution
Representative of religious leaders
Representation of woman leaders
Representation of youth
Representatives of Partner Agencies active in Health/Immunization in the LGA
Representatives of Security Agencies
Programme officers
Representative of PTA
Moreover, the Wife of the Idemili North Mayor, Lady Ebere Nkwoka joined advocacy on polio immunization as PHC health workers commenced NIPDs OPV across the LGA encouraging every mother and caregivers whose child is between 0 to 59 months to avail their children for the ongoing polio vaccination irrespective of wether the child has been vaccinated before now.