Immunisation: Lagos rallies council chairmen, others for wider coverage

Lagos State Government in collaboration with council chairmen and religious leaders have step up on campaign on immunisation in order to reach out all Lagosians.

The state government called for active participation of all stakeholders in order to ensure that everyone in the state is immunized against any form of diseases.

Speaking during the inauguration of the state Task Force on Immunization and Primary Health Care Services in Alausa, Ikeja, on Tuesday, the state Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, who is Chairman of the committee, said that the taskforce was set up to ensure that all children in the state are vaccinated.

He acknowledged the immunization team for raising the bar in the administration of immunization in the past years, stressing that efforts must be intensified to reach out to others who have not accessed the vaccines.

He said "We want our religious leaders to use their various sermons to inform people about the potency of the vaccine. We equally want our schools to be aware of their role in ensuring the students were duly vaccinated.," Hamzat added.

 Hamzat added that there is the need to work together with the relevant stakeholders in the state to achieve the success of the initiative.

He enjoined all stakeholders in the health sector to support this initiative, as the state government would increase its budgeting allocation to cater for the development of the primary health care services for optimal service delivery to the people.

The state's Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said that the event was aimed at increasing sensitisation effort and advocate for healthcare delivery at the grassroots level.

Prof. Abayomi said "any community that has a weak primary healthcare platform is destined to have a sickly community. The primary objective is increasing our coverage for immunization. The world has advanced to produce very effective vaccines that eliminate both infections that cause immediate sicknesses that can lead to complications such as hepatitis, cervical cancer with HPV, malaria, among others." 

Prof. Abayomi noted that for Lagos State "to improve the uptake, the services must improve," adding that the services are the infrastructure, equipment, and human resources for health.

"While we are talking about increasing our resources, it's important that we work on the aspects that make primary healthcare more attractive to Lagos residents," Abayomi noted.

Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Primary Health Care Board, Dr. Ibraham Mustapha, said that the state government is committed to strengthening PCH governance and providing accountability, ensuring that no one is left behind in accessing life-saving vaccines, as well as essential health services.

He said that the government wants to ensure optimal routine performance across all LGAs, adding: 

"We want to want to respond the outbreak of vaccine preventable diseases and align our PHC service delivery, as well as foster stronger collaboration between the government and the private sector."

Through the Task Force, Mustapha said that the government expects to have improvement in the immunization coverage, strengthen health system resilience by finances, human resources and community engagement.

Speaking on behalf of the Chairmen, the chairman of Conference 57 who is also the chairman, Ibeju-Lekki Local Government, Sesan Olowa assured the deputy governor and taskforce of the commitment of all the chairmen to support the immunisation campaign