In an effort to eradicate non-compliance throughout the state, Jigawa State has urged the media to ramp up public awareness efforts regarding the need of immunisation.
At a one-day mass mobilisation debate on the polio campaign and routine immunisation, hosted by the State Primary Health Care Development Agency in partnership with UNICEF Kano Field Office, Dr Shehu Ibrahim, the State immunisation Officer, made the call.
There was an engagement where U-Reporters, youth activists, social media influencers, and journalists reviewed the results of the March polio campaign and spoke about how to get people to trust carers more, take vaccines, and understand why it’s important to get vaccinated.
He noted that the state’s recent campaign had vaccinated around 2.5 million children under the age of five, which constituted 116% of the objective. He praised the accomplishment, saying it demonstrated the state’s increasing dedication to child health.
He brought attention to the fact that some local government regions still had incidences of vaccine rejection, even though there had been ongoing awareness campaigns including religious leaders, traditional institutions, and the media.
Some councils fell short of the necessary standard, even though he said that all 27 LGAs should have achieved immunisation coverage of at least 95%.
According to Shehu, 4,950 of the 5,421 instances of noncompliance that the state documented during the exercise were satisfactorily resolved, while 471 remained unresolved.
In his speech, he emphasised the importance of working together with the media more effectively to combat disinformation, boost public trust, and guarantee that all children who are eligible for vaccines get them.
Muhammad Zangina, chairman of the correspondents’ chapel and a representative of working journalists, pledged to increase public awareness of the vaccine’s importance in protecting children’s lives.
The journalist also promised to keep helping with the vaccine exercise’s planning and execution so they can generate demand and feedback for better policymaking.