Charles Ekanem|20 September 2017
Director General of Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Betta Edu yesterday at the Cross River State Measles Campaign Mircoplan Training of Trainers ( ToT) supported by World Health Organization (WHO) reacted to the poor and lacklustre attitude of Local Immunization Officers (LIOs) and other workers to get every child immunised and collect data from immunization campaigns NegroidHaven can report. She stressed on the need for improvement in view of the coming 2018 Measles campaign in the State
She uses the opportunity to inform that the 2016 measles campaign was a huge success as Cross River State was rated high in Nigeria with just a point behind the leading state. According to her 2018 campaign must surpass the record and that can be done by all of us doing the right thing which is getting every child immunised and producing result on time for data collation.
She notified them that some of the challenges from the last campaign has been addressed by the Governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade,as 90% of all cold chain equipment in the state are to be fixed before December. Dr Edu said the Agency will liaise with the Head of Local Government Administrations ( HOLGAs ) to see how they can assist their various PHC Department to achieve successful implementation.
She said in accordance with the Law creating the Agency the PHC Department in the LGA will be abolished to pave way for the creation Local Government Health Authority.
The DG reiterated her stand on the need for LIOs to sit up on their reportage and result on immunization. The immunization report for the last two months is not impressive. She warned that such should not repeat itself again as the Agency will have no choice than to remove such officers from their role and replace them with capable hands. She urged them to do things the right way by always giving their result 10 days to the deadline as the lives of the children is our responsibility.
Finally she urged them to immediately begin measles advocacy in the communities by meeting the village chief, women groups, youth and religious leaders etc.
She tasked them to grow beyond challenges and instead proffer solutions while in the field.
She noted that the Federal Government, State Government through the Save one million lives fund, WHO and UNICEF will be supporting the Agency during the campaign.
Present at the meeting was WHO state coordinator Dr Igbu the Director of Admin CRSPHCDA Pastor ( Barr ) Dan Efiom, SIO, SCCO, SNO, M&E, and LIO.
Charles Ekanem
Is a health reporter
