Uduaghan Sues for Peaceful Coexistence to Successfully Wipe out Polio

DELTA State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan has sued for peaceful

coexistence among Nigerians to check the spread of polio virus.

The Governor who made the call weekend at Koko, Warri North local

government area of the state during the flag off of the 2014 second

quarter polio eradication sensitization campaign observed that no case of

polio virus has been reported in Delta State for more than five years.

However, he decried the situation where Nigeria is grouped among

war-ridden countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan as countries still

battling with cases of polio.
“I want to encourage us to be peaceful, we should also be vigilant to

ensure that those coming to our state from areas where there is crisis in

the country did not bring the virus to our state,” the Governor said.

While congratulating officials of the state Ministry of health and local

government councils' chairmen for sustaining the campaign against polio,

the governor reiterated that mothers should ensure that they vaccinated

their children who are five years of age and below against polio and other

childhood diseases.
“We must ensure that we are up to date with our polio vaccines,” Dr

Uduaghan said, emphasising that parents must imbibe the habit of

cleanliness, especially, washing of hands and keeping the environment

clean.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Joseph Otumara in an address at the

occasion, said, “the polio eradication initiative which began in 1988 was

a collective public health effort involving the World Health Organisation,

UNICEF and the Rotary Foundation to eliminate all cases of polio infection

around the world.”
Dr Otumara stated that “if sufficient numbers of children in the community

are fully immunized against polio, the virus would be unable to find

susceptible children to infect and finally dies out.”

Goodwill messages were delivered by representatives of donor agencies and

stakeholders. Mrs. I E Oteri of the National Primary Healthcare

Development Agency lauded the Uduaghan administration for successfully

tackling the scourge of polio virus in the state.
Highpoint of the occasion was the administering of the polio vaccine on

children below five years by Governor Uduaghan assisted by his

commissioners and health workers.