Campaigns to End Measles IntensifyHealth office

Health officers

Measles is one of the major child-killer diseases ravaging all the states across the country. Godwin Haruna and Ugo Aliogo write on the various efforts by groups to immunise children against the disease

Experts maintain that measles infection is characterised by two phases of symptoms. The first phase lasts approximately three to four days and consists of flu-like symptoms such as fatigue, persistent cough, runny nose, pink eye (also known as conjunctivitis) and a moderate fever. The second phase begins with the development of spots within the mouth known as Koplik's spots. These spots appear whitish with a bluish center. Shortly after the development of the spots, the fever will spike up to as high as 104 degrees and a flat, red, itchy rash will develop all over the body.

Due to the serious nature of the ailment in Nigeria, a total of 12, 758, 392 children between the ages of six months and five years are expected to have been vaccinated during the second phase of a nationwide mass vaccination against the pandemic last forthnight. The immunisation campaign was expected to cover 355 local government areas and 4, 712 wards, as well as 9, 418 vaccination posts in the 17 states of the South-east and South-south zones

of the country. The first phase of the campaign reportedly held in all the 19 Northern states and the FCT from October 12 to 16.
As part of the sensitization drive towards a 100 per cent immunisation the International Association of Lions Clubs visited the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu Monday. In his sppech Oba Akiolu commended the 2013 integrated measles campaign tagged; ‘One shot one life’ organised by the International Association of Lions Clubs.

The Oba gave the commendation in Lagos during the commencement of the campaign aimed at senistising mothers on the benefits of immunising their children against measles in Lagos. Oba Akiolu expressed his satisfaction with the exercise and affirmed his desire to support the exercise by ensuring that mothers are properly informed to bring out their children for immunisation.

According to him, “Your course is a worthy one and well deserving. Like I said to the market women, the issue of immunisation is about education and public enlightenment. I want to use this medium to thank some emirs in the North especially the Sultan of Sokoto, for helping to educate and encourage his people about immunisation. I wish to say here that the need for primary health care is very important. It helps to educate the people at the grass-root. The Iga Idunganran health centre built by Zenith Bank has been of immense help to the people of the community. Also the two council chairmen have been helpful as well. I want to assure you that your mission of impacting lives would be a very successful one.”

Continuing, Oba Akiolu advised the members of the Lions Club not to relent in their efforts to ensure a measles-free society: “I still expect more life-changing initiatives from the Lions Clubs because a healthy and clean environment is what we require to get us going. I want to appeal to the federal government to invest more money to assist the primary health care; they should make it the responsibility of the state and local governments. They should also ensure that money voted for a particular project is used for the benefits of the people. I want to commend the Lagos State government for giving this programme the needed publicity. I want to thank you and wish a successful campaign.” he noted.

Also speaking during the exercise, Chairman, Planning Committee, Lions Integrated Measles Campaign, Dr. Yinka Griffin, said: “This is the second nationwide Measles campaign that the Lions are sponsoring in partnership the national primary healthcare development agency (NPHDA) federal government chairpersons and other primary health care centres nationwide. In October, the northern campaign was flagged off in Abuja and Illorin simultaneously where Lions officials participated in getting children between the ages of nine months to five years. We also mobilised people, paid advocacy visits to traditional rulers, deputy governors and commissioners to inform them about what Lions is doing to improve infant mortality in compliance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) number four, which is aimed at eradicating polio and Measles by 2015. This exercise is a nationwide campaign, the southern campaign kicked off Saturday and it ended yesterday. With this road show, we are creating awareness to get the women bring their children within the immunisation age. We have also visited the Oba of Lagos and spoken to him to help us talk to the women to bring their children for immunisation.  Here in Lagos Island, we have the local chairperson and their health workers collaborating with us to immunise the children. We are going to be in various local government councils in Lagos State to continue the immunisation. The same thing would take place in states in the southern part of the country. With our 5,000 members in Nigeria, I believe we can make a significant impact.”

Speaking on the success of the first phase, which took place in Abuja in 2011, Griffin noted that the second phase was a huge success and the progress of 2013 is heavily hinged on the 2011 campaign. 

He further stated that at present, the Lions Clubs is partnering  NPHDA which is the federal government agency involved in immunisation and they support them financially to ensure that the campaign is a huge success. We are also in partnership with United Nation Children Education Fund (UNICEF) and World Health of Organisation (WHO).

Meanwhile, the Representative of Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) Mr. Benajmin Futranksy, has expressed satisfaction with the exercise and assured of the desire of LCIF to ensure that this years’ campaign in Nigeria is a significant success.

“Today’s campaign has been wonderful activity and the Lions in partnership the ministry of health ensures that people within the remote parts of the community are reached with message of the integrated measles campaign immunisation. From the measles campaign, we hope to achieve 100% coverage. Every single child that falls under the stipulated age of immunisation would be immunised. Therefore, we are looking at 95% of children being immunised and ultimately measles would not be able to spread within the community. In 2011, we had a campaign which was targeted at getting children vaccinated against measles. This time, we want to do more than we did in 2011. Our aim is to get more children vaccinated, increase our awareness campaign and ensure a measles-free world.  We in Nigeria are also reaching out to other countries of the world, creating awareness campaigns and other efforts aimed at tackling the scourge.” he stated.

As part of a deliberate efforts by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to partner the media in creating public awareness and education about the immunisation, media practitioners and health educators had been tasked not to fail the nation’s children. Aside from polio, the agency made it clear that there are other non-polio supplementary activities embarked on all-year round to stem child-killer diseases in the country such as yellow fever, maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination (MNTE), MenAfriVac (against meningitis) and others.

Measles outbreak in Nigeria follows a seasoned trend with periods of high transmission from January to June peaking in March and low transmission from July to December. Epidemiological data indicate states in the North West geopolitical zone of the country, especially Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Kaduna, Yobe and Zamfara record the highest numbers of cases.

Measles, which is a highly contagious disease caused by the measles virus, is a vaccine-preventable disease that is spread by droplets or contact with nasal or throat secretions of the infected person through coughing and sneezing. It is the leading cause of death in children and causes a high fever, rashes, cough and running nose. In addition, it often causes serious health complications, including blindness, diarrhoea, brain damage and pneumonia and it reduces a child’s ability to fight other diseases, resulting in frequent illness. Those who are malnourished are most at risk of dying.

health 4:52:00 PM