Measles Takes its Toll In Nigeria | 190 Fatalities in 2009

By: Victor Ulasi

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCD) of Nigeria has stated the 190 people died of measles in 2009 nationwide due to lack of vaccine and inadequate numbers of trained medical providers to administer the vaccination.

In Northern Nigeria and some rural remote areas, parents refuse to have their children vaccinated, as they believe that it is a way the United States of America invented to kill their children and prevent the mothers from having more children.

The issue of immunization is nothing to write home about, immunization exercise has decreased in Nigeria as most of the people reject the treatment, while others prefer the traditional method to the modern one.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCD) Dr. Mohammad Pate disclosed the menace at the opening ceremony of the national meeting of experts on Measles in Minna, Nigeria. He further said that the disease was able to claim lives as people reject immunizations and more would if nothing is done. He maintained that the diseases are a result of decline due to immunization.

He said the agency would intensify its campaigns on immunization to ensure that the effect of the disease remained on the decline, adding that it had one million doses of Measles vaccines for distribution to all parts of the country. He added that Nigeria had since 2008 witnessed a decline in the number of confirmed Measles cases from 5,000 to 1,000.

Plans had been concluded by the agency to target children between the ages of one and five for immunization. Pate urged the National Assembly to appropriate sufficient funds for the agency to enable it discharge its responsibility of immunizing children against preventable killer diseases.

Posted by worldnews on March 29, 2010. Filed under Child and Parenting,Human Interest - Africa,International News,Medicine,News - Africa,WorldNewsVine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.