2 weeks ago
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MAKURDI – Benue State Primary Health Care Board (BSPHCB), Makurdi says it has commenced mobilisation for the next round of the Big Catch-Up (BCU) in the state, aimed at immunising children age 12 to 59 months, that have either been partially immunised or have never been immunised.
Executive Secretary (ES), BSPHCB, Mrs Grace Ashi Wende, who disclosed this during a stakeholders meeting in Makurdi this weekend, preparatory to another round of the BCU, briefed stakeholders that they are to disseminate the information about the next round of the exercise to reach the targeted group before the commencement of the programme.
She explained that during the last exercise that was held in December, 2024, the state was able to reach out to about 85 percent of the 210,503 children that were targeted for the BCU, adding that it plans to mop up the rest during the next round of the exercise that would commence soon.
The ES who said plans have reached an advanced stage for the next round of the intensified immunisation explained that Benue have already concluded modalities and commenced plans to mobilize to site the teams that would embark on the exercise.
Among the stakeholders were present at the meeting were religious leaders, the media, CSOs, youth groups, traditional and community leaders.
Wende said, “We cannot effectively carryout our actions if you (stakeholders) are not informed. So we are disseminating this information to you that the Benue State Health Care Board BSPHCB is carrying out another round of the Big Catch-Up (BCU); we carried out the first round in December, 2024, this is the second round of the intervention.
“It (exercise) is as result of some children who have not been vaccinated. We have under vaccinated our children and haven under vaccinated our children about 30 states in the country have under vaccinated their children and Benue is part of those states.
“The essence is to ensure that children who have partially been immunised are reached and their is another group of children who have not been immunised at all. But it is expected that all the children who are 5 years and below receive vaccination for all the vaccine preventable diseases so that they can be fully protected.
“Some of the difficulties we encounter on the field are that some people are undecided about vaccinating their children; some are giving out false information that the vaccinations are there to cause harm as a result of that they are hesitant about bringing out their children to vaccinate them,” she observed.
Earlier, the State Health Educator (SHE), BSPHCB, Emmanuel Beeka said “We want to ensure that we reach out to children in the 12 LGAs who have not been vaccinated or have not been adequately vaccinated.
“The LGAs are Ado, Okpokwu, Gwer-East, Guma, Konshisha, Kwande, Vandeikya, Ukum, Katsina-Ala, Logo, Buruku and Ushongo local government areas of the state” he said.
In her remarks during the meeting, Dorcas Omachoko, the UNICEF Consultant for the BCU in the state, pointed out that in the next round of the BCU, Benue will be targeting children in 144 wards of the 12 LGAs where they have been under immunized.
She said, “This is a not a routine immunisation, it is immunisation intensification and we are targeting children 12 to 59 months old. We don’t want to do it as a routine immunisation where at the end of the day we return to status quo. We want to improve on what we have been doing.
“We are lagging behind in terms of routine immunisation and unfortunately for Benue we are among one of the least performing states in Nigeria. We are targeting 144 wards in 12 LGAs of the state.
“So we want to use the BCU to cover the areas that we had hitherto been constrained. Opportunity has been given to us so we must make the most use of this opportunity. Therefore we want to solicit your support for us to achieve success”, she appealed.
On her part, Rebecca Mutuah, the UNICEF State Facilitator for Measles said, “During the last BCU even though the information went out it did not get to all the targeted persons. There were some people out there that were not aware because we met people on the field that were not aware of the exercise.
“Therefore as media personnel, in our role of information dissemination we expect you to do more. We are seeking your support and are relying on you to help us succeed. On we part we pledge to also do our bit and together as a team the outcome will be impressive”, the Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) Officer said.
In his presentation, Innocent Adega, State Immunisation Officer (SIO), observed that “Actually, this time around, we are not going to use the fixed posts because the children that were missed and we are targeting are not in the fixed posts. They are either in the security compromised settlements or settlements that are hard to reach.
“We are basically using two strategies on how to reach out to them. For those places that are not too far, the outreach teams will visit those areas; but for areas that are about 10 kilometers or more, the mobile teams will go to those places. So they are not going to be moving from house to house. We will be using both the outreach and mobile teams to reach out to them throughout the days of the BCU.
“The security people, the JTF will join the teams so that they will protect the teams that are going to the security compromised areas, such as the mountainous areas in Kwande LGA. The essence is that we what to go to where those children area that they were not reached during the routine immunisation. That is out target”, he stated.
Also lending her voice, President Federation of Muslim Women Association in Nigeria (FOMWAN), Jamila iliyasu, stressed the need to encourage the women folk to bring forth their children for immunisation.
While she stated that FOMWAN was sensitizing women along those lines, she urged women in the country to cooperate with the immunisation teams to ensure that their children were vaccinated against vaccine preventable diseases.
Iliyasu, however, pointed out that in some cases poor sensitization and mobilization has affected the success of the immunisation in some areas just as she pledged that on its part the association would intensify campaign for the exercise.
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