‘Apathy toward vaccines damaging primary health care’

Nigerian Medical Association says apathy toward routine immunisation, is damaging primary health care across the country. NMA at its Physicians Week in Abuja, said preventable child diseases like measles, which has infected 7,500 children this year “ought not to still exist in Nigeria.” Dr Kayode Obembe, president of NMA, said the week, which comes at […]

Nigerian Medical Association says apathy toward routine immunisation, is damaging primary health care across the country. NMA at its Physicians Week in Abuja, said preventable child diseases like measles, which has infected 7,500 children this year “ought not to still exist in Nigeria.”
Dr Kayode Obembe, president of NMA, said the week, which comes at a period when the word “Change” has become the commonest slogan, noted the “Change mantra should also affect and impact positively in the health sector.”
According to Obembe, measles is considered a leading killer of children, and those who recover from the disease run the risk of developing complications as blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhoea, ear infection and pneumonia, but states have consistently performed poorly in encouraging immunisation.
A nationwide campaign to immunise some 39 million children against measles gets underway in November, with only about $3.73 million out of an estimated $45.5 million donor-funded budget to be borne federal and state governments.
The association lamented about state governments seeming not to bother about funding, coordinating and sustaining routine immunisation. “Could this explain why such an important game changing intervention programme be left to be substantially funded by donor funds?” said Obembe.
“Perhaps, this too, is the reason few are bothered about the fate of immunisation programmes in the face of donor fund withdrawal.”
Chairman of the NMA’s Abuja chapter, Dr Fatima Mairami, said “After breastfeeding and access to clean water, immunisation is the most highly effective intervention for protecting babies from infectious diseases.”
But she added that despite provision of vaccines free, courtesy of international and local nongovernment organisations and government, “Many parents neither appreciate nor realise the importance of vaccinating their children.”