Polio Vaccination: Toro, UNICEF Target 196, 220 Children

Receives 241, 150 doses of polio vaccines as UNICEF support

Recruits 1477 personnel for immunisation exercise

From Paul Orude Bauchi

Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State has received a total 241, 150 doses of Novel Oral Polio vaccine (NOPV) as support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the current drive to eradicate zero dose.

This was disclosed by Musa Danladi, the Local Immunisation Officer (LIO) for Toro, in his office on Sunday, when a team of journalists supported by UNICEF, visited  Toro LGA to monitor the on-going  polio Immunization Campaign to vaccinate all  zero-dose children under the age of five in the state.

Toro is one of the 13 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Bauchi that have recorded zero doses of vaccination, leaving 556, 000 children unprotected.

Danladi said that the support from the fund, which also covers logistics, training, advocacy and sensitization, would go a long way in reversing the worrisome situation of zero-dose children in Toro.

He said with support from UNICEF and other partners, the LGA targets 196, 220 under five children for vaccination.

He explained that the vaccines were distributed to all the 17 wards in Toro when the exercise began.

The LIO disclosed a total 1477 personnel had been recruited for the exercise to ensure that unreached children are vaccinated.

 “The support from UNICEF is timely and will reduced drastically cases of zero-dose children in Toro,” he stated.

 “We are doing everything humanly possible to ensure we reach the target we want – that every unvaccinated single child in the LGA is vaccinated”

He said the vaccines were placed in consignments and supplied to hard to reach wards in Toro and stored with solar direct drive donated by UNICEF.

Danladi said the exercise has been going smoothly and successfully in the LGA. 

“If we compare with the last round this is better,” he said.

“There were lots of activities before the commencement which included trainings, advocates, sensitization,

“Before we had security challenges and our teams were unable to go to some settlements and conduct immunization so we discussed with security agencies who gave us maximum support to go to every settlement in the LGA.

“We paid advocacy visit the Toro Community Radio station which shared our plan of activities

“These series of activates and UNICEF support brought reduction in non-compliant”

We recorded non-complaint in 71 households across the LGA with 138 children, after intervention with community leaders, community resource groups such as FOMWAN, SALAMA, we were able to resolve 36 households out  71 with 72 children.

Presently, we have a pending non-compliance of 31 households with 66 children. We have collected the list and pending children which we will submit to the district head of Toro to take action”