About two million children in Katsina State are to be immunized against polio from January 11 to 14, 2020, as part of efforts to rid the state and the country of the wild poliovirus.
The Katsina State Primary Health Care Agency is already putting final touches to arrangements to ensure that all the children in the state, especially those from 0 to 59 months across the 34 local government areas, are immunized within the period.
The Executive Secretary of the agency, Dr. Shamsu Yahaya, confirmed the development to Northern City News in Katsina on Sunday.
“The polio immunization is taking off in the state on January 11, 2020. All children from zero to 59 months of age are to be immunized. We are targeting 1.7 to two million children using the oral polio vaccine,” he stated.
It was learned that the agency had organized several meetings as well as workshops for various stakeholders, especially health workers, opinion and religious leaders as well as focal persons in all the local government areas to ensure that the targeted children were immunized.
A participant in one of the workshops, Umar Ahmad, who is with the UNICEF, said residents of the state were being sensitized to the need to have the children immunized against polio.
He stated, “Even if Nigeria is to be certified polio-free from 2020, we need to ensure that the children are immunized against the disease.
“After the slated exercise, there will still be routine immunization against the disease in the state.”
