The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Primary Health Care Development Board (PHCDB) has expressed worries over the low routine immunisation in Kwali area council of the FCT.
The Executive Secretary of FCT PHCDB, Dr. Rilwan Mohammed, who expressed this worries at the flagging off of Routine Immunization Exercise at Dafa Village in Kwali said that the board realized that in FCT, particularly in Kwali area council, the level of routine immunization is very low and they are worried that it may lead to outbreak if immunization is not carried out.
Mohammed said that Dafa ward in Kwali has been the lowest level of routine immunisation in the FCT, saying that the ward is one of the highest risk in the whole of the FCT, that was why they decided that since there is an area where it is very low, it can bring about outbreak of polio, so they decided to carry out immunisation in the entire FCT.
According to the Executive Secretary, the immunization will be for four days, from Saturday to Tuesday and they are going to start again on July 25 and the other one on August 25, saying that this is to make sure that they mop up everywhere in the FCT.
“This is also because, we have 15,000 internally displaced persons in the FCT and this is a rainy season and most rural communities are very dirty. That is why we are carrying out the immunisation, to mop up the virus, so that we will not have outbreak again.
“The FCT is the highest risk in the country now, because many people are coming to the city because of security and business reasons. They are coming with their children and we are not sure of their status, that is why we are immunizing all our communities and also enlightening them on routine immunization and the need for cultivating clean environment,” he said.
The Vice Chairman of Kwali, Mr. Garba Ibrahim, who expressed gratitude to the FCT PHCDB for the steps taken to fight out polio in the council, said that the council will do everything possible to ensure that they maintain the high standard of polio free society and that they are going to support the government of the FCT to completely wipe out polio from the FCT.