Zamfara intensifies effort to improve Routine Immunisation says official
Zamfara intensifies effort to improve Routine Immunisation says official
By Sadiq Martins, Gusau
The Zamfara State Government says it’s taking all measures needed to improve routine immunisation by ensuring that every eligible child receives the life-saving vaccines.
The Deputy Incident Manager of the Polio Emergency Operations Centre in Zamfara, Dr Jamilu Bawa gave the assurance while speaking during the ongoing One-day onboarding of Routine Immunisation (RI) service providers under the Z-TRACE project in Gusau, Zamfara.
The training being organised by the Sultan Foundation for Peace and Development in collaboration with the Zamfara State Primary Health Care Development Board.
Bawa said the initiative was designed to identify zero-dose and under-immunised children, enrol them in routine immunisation programmes and ensure they received the required vaccines.
He stressed the need for health workers, development partners and other stakeholders to work together to address challenges affecting routine immunisation across the state.
According to him, the project would also strengthen follow-up mechanisms to ensure that children receive their vaccines throughout the immunisation schedule.
He emphasised the importance of accurate data collection and documentation at health facilities, local government and state levels to improve coordination and track immunisation progress.
He expressed confidence that the project would improve immunisation coverage, adding that the participating health workers had demonstrated their willingness to support the initiative.
Speaking on concerns about the commitment of some health workers, particularly in areas with high numbers of zero-dose children, the official said the major challenge was accountability rather than financial motivation.
He explained that the state government had recently reviewed the renumeration of health workers and taken steps to improve their welfare.
Bawa stressed that stronger monitoring and accountability mechanisms were important in ensuring effective service delivery.
He, however, assured that necessary measures were being introduced to monitor the performance of health workers and address cases of negligence in accordance with established procedures.
Bawa noted that his responsibility as Deputy Incident Manager included providing technical support to the state and local government areas, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, to interrupt polio transmission and improve routine immunisation.
On the recent suspected outbreak of polio in Talata Mafara and most recently in Kaura Namoda, Bawa said investigations were ongoing and that the cases referred to during the interview had yet to be confirmed.
He expressed optimism that ongoing efforts by the relevant authorities and stakeholders would help bring the situation under control.
The RI service providers were drawn from Zurmi LG in Zamfara.
The Foundation is supporting Z-TRACE by place Immunization Equity (IE) intelligence, community structures and accountability at the center of Zero-dose reduction, while strengthening existing government-led routine immunization systems.
The Sultan Foundation’s effort is to help Zamfara to reduce the more than 269, 241 zero-dose burden in seven most affected local government areas of the state.
The foundation and Z-TRACE are working, through collaboration with GAVI CSO Fund manager mechanism to reduce the Zero-dose children by 30 per cent or 80,772 by December 2027 in the state.
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