PHCDA pleads with community to accept polio vaccine

dimeji akinloye

October 25, 2016 9:22 AM

During a meeting with leaders of the community, the agency urged them to safeguard the future of their children.

Volunteer Health officials wait to immunise children at a school in Nigeria's capital Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Zango is one of the communities in Bauchi state that had resisted the administration of polio vaccine on their children.

Speaking during a meeting with leaders of the community,Chairman of the agency, Mr. Adamu Gamawa, urged them to safeguard the future of their children by accepting precautionary steps against the dreaded virus.

He said that rejecting the vaccine amounted to exposing their children to a tragic incident that once it occurred, could not be reversed.

“Parent should ensure that they take advantage of the free routine immunization taking place in various health facilities across the state.

“The children are also being vaccinated against other killer diseases; you should take advantage of the exercise ,’’ he pleaded.

In his comment, the Chairman, Polio Survivors in Bauchi Local Government, Mr Abdullahi Lushi, said the wild polio virus was dangerous .

“Polio virus lives a victim with a life-time deficiency and it affects one right from childhood.

“I became a polio victim when I was five years and I will live with the deficiency for the rest of my life,’’ he said.

In his remark, the Community leader of Zango, Alhaji Suleiman Ahmed, warned that henceforth, any member of the community that rejected the vaccine would be handed over to the police.

dimeji akinloye