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ADENIYI OLUGBEMI writes on the challenges that could hinder polio eradication in the state of Sokoto
hajiya Zainab Abdulnaseer is an appropriate description of disability capacity. Abdulnaseer, a master's degree, is a survivor of polio.
Abdulnaseer, a mother of three and currently assistant news director at NTA, Sokoto Network Center, is committed to vaccinating children against polio and other deadly diseases.
She said, "From my mother, I realized that I was walking at seven months and that I had about a year of fever and that I had an injection. There, I was unable to sit but I could only crawl. My mother only told me that she had taken me to the hospital for a routine injection.
"In reality, my disability prevented me from becoming a doctor. Even as a physical handicapped, I got the required grades and I was admitted to the Usmanu Danfodiyo University of Sokoto in 1990 to study medicine, but we were advised to request a change of course.
"My advice to parents is that polio is real and we need to protect our children with free vaccines. As a survivor, I can say that polio does not end only with a disability. There is age-related pain and trauma that goes with it. "
Despite warnings from personal experience, some parents have been accused of finding new ways to protect their children from polio vaccines.
Other problems, such as inadequate logistics in transport areas, poor roads and difficult terrain, inter alia, hampered the November cycle of inactivated inactivated polio vaccine vaccination in divided doses. / Oral polio vaccine in Sokoto.
A vaccinator from the Yabo "B" constituency, who participated in the October polio immunization and spoke on condition of anonymity, shared her experience with our correspondent.
He said: "Last month, the polio vaccination was my second experience as a vaccinator and the rate of non-compliance in the Yabo" B "constituency was higher than that of Yabo" A "when I first experience.
"I discovered that some people, because of their religious beliefs, did not allow their children to be vaccinated against polio or any other deadly disease. My meeting in a particular house was shocking.
"When we arrived at the house with a colleague and asked the woman to bring her children under five for vaccination purposes, the woman took out her daughter and showed us her fingernail marked with A pen, an indication that she had been vaccinated.
"To our surprise, the usual code mark on homes where children had been vaccinated was not on the wall of her house and, when she was interviewed further, the woman closed the door to against us. Fortunately on the way back, we saw the little girl and asked her who fingered her finger, the girl innocently answered Baba na (my father). "
PUNCH SUNDAY The survey also revealed that many people belonging to a religious sect refused to allow their children to participate in the exercise despite the persuasion of traditional leaders, religious and public opinion .
Some sources told our correspondent that these members sometimes confused the vaccinators by marking their homes with the code to give the impression that their house had been visited and their children vaccinated.
Further investigation revealed that some mothers refused to vaccinate their children on the grounds that the vaccines they had been given had expired. They would then unload the vaccinators on the pretext that they would rather go to the health center to get vaccinated, but they would not.
Pius Attandoh, head of polio communication for UNICEF in Sokoto, denied knowing the situation and said: "If there is something like this, it will be rare.
"What I'm aware of is that because of the benefit that we bring in parallel to the vaccination, like noodles, some educators try to clean the ink from the child's hands, so that the child can get more, without knowing that the skin absorbs the ink quickly.
"With the kind of oversight mechanism we've put in place, it's hard for all of this to happen. Each brand on the wall is special and not everyone can decode it. This could mean that no vaccine has been administered in a particular home, that no child is eligible or that the child is absent. The score is there for the senior officer to follow up. "
Attandoh, however, said that there could be a situation where a house was not marked during exercise.
He said: "Where the mother bends to the father's wish because we are focused on the child and we do not want to break the marriage, we respect the wish of the mother by silently immunizing the child." child and leaving the house unmarked. .
"In case of non-compliance, we have a particular brand and the list of these houses is established and transmitted to higher authorities. Another essence of the brand is to watch if the vaccinators do their job. "
In addition, Abdallah el-Kurebe, coordinator of Journalists Against Polio in the State of Sokoto, said the non-compliance with the vaccination rules mainly concerned poor parents with no education.
El-Kurebe recalled a scenario in which an academic rejected the immunization of his children, adding that when the National Committee for Mobilization for Polio Vaccination had forcibly vaccinated his children, the lecturer had then sought redress and won his case .
The JAP coordinator said, "If all citizens rely on the government, they must respect the rules and regulations in place to create a healthy society. This explains the need to comply with the preventive measures put in place by the government. Non-compliance must be punished.
Dr. Larai Tambuwal, a consultant from the World Health Organization in Sokoto, said that 5% of vaccines had been rejected in that state.
Tambuwal said, "We are almost there, but we may not be able to do it without increased engagement from all stakeholders. As long as polio exists anywhere, children are everywhere exposed. "
Available records indicate that savings in health care costs attributable to the polio eradication campaign are estimated at billions of dollars by 2035. The entire polio eradication program, such as the extra vitamins included in oral vaccines, is estimated. have generated about $ 90 billion in savings and averted an additional 5.4 million deaths from newborns.
Unlike Abdulnaseer, who belongs to a privileged family, the situation is different for Ahmed Goronyo, another 36-year-old polio survivor, who blamed his disability on his parents' poverty and illiteracy.
Ahmed, a shoemaker, said PUNCH SUNDAY that even when he asked his parents what was responsible for the condition of his disabled right leg, the only answer that his father had given him before he died was that he "s sure it was his destiny.
He said: "His argument was that none of his children had taken the polio vaccine and that only my state of life was handicapped, that was my fate.
"Even when other polio survivors explained that their disability was due to a lack of polio vaccines and that my dad asked me if I had already taken the vaccines, he said: Said he was not aware of this vaccine. "
The father of two, who spoke to Hausa, told his parents that he was the only disabled person in their village and that they decided to keep him inside so that They are not ridiculed.
"I can not go to Islamiyya school with my brothers and sisters nor play with my peers because of my disability. My release took place when my maternal uncle brought me to Sokoto, took me a cane and later learned to make shoes.
"Now that I know the consequences of not taking the polio vaccine, I made sure that none of my two children had missed their immunization," he said.
according to PUNCH SUNDAY Investigation, the last case of poliomyelitis in Sokoto State dates back to 2012, in Lahodu, in the local government area of Wurno, where Abdullahi Keli, age 10, was identified. Since then, no cases have been reported.
Keli is now a point of reference during the immunization campaign and advocacy, especially in and around the council of Wurno, an area of state concentration in the fight against polio.
With 222 cases in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2012, Nigeria recorded only four cases in 2016 and, this year out, no new polio cases were recorded.
The state government, in collaboration with UNICEF, introduced split-dose inactivated polio vaccine, along with oral polio vaccine, during the November 2018 cycle in some areas of local governments.
The FIPV is beneficial for children already vaccinated against poliomyelitis as well as for children at zero dose. It strengthens the immunity of children who have already received OPV. FIPV can be administered alone or at the same time with any OPV vaccine.
During the last six days of vaccination, FIVP was administered by intramuscular injection while OPV was administered orally. However, it was a win-win situation since every child who went for vaccination smiled at home with a pack of noodles.
Although the government, at all levels, and donor partners are trying to confine polio to the historical, efforts have been made to thwart the total eradication of polio, even when printing erroneous that polio vaccines are destined to depopulate Africa has been demystified by scientific evidence.
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