The Enugu State Primary Health Care Development Agency (ENS-PHCDA) says well-executed immunization coverage remains a shared responsibility of everybody in any given community in the country.
The Executive Secretary of ENS-PHCDA, Dr George Ugwu, said this in Enugu on Thursday while speaking on the impact of the World Immunization Week.
Ugwu spoke on the sidelines of the giant efforts to deepen immunization penetration and coverage in Enugu State by Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s administration.
He said that immunization should be a collective thing where all stakeholders play various roles for it to be effective and make the desired impact.
He noted that immunization was the “surest and efficient way of pushing the narrative of preventive rather than curative medicine that works for the benefit of all”.
According to him, “we are using this opportunity this week to call on everybody to come on board as there is a role for everyone in immunization.
“The stakeholders in immunization involve everybody in the family – father, mother and grown-ups; traditional/community, youth and religious leaders, the media, educated and enlightened people that exist in any given human community or environment.
“This is to ensure our immunization penetration is deepened and very wide coverage is achieved to ensure no one, whether a child or adult, is left out,” he said.
Ugwu noted that immunization was the surest way to reduce disease and its financial burden on families, neighborhoods and communities all over the world.
He added that it had continued to reduce infant and maternal mortality in neighborhoods and communities in Enugu State; while ensuring health of all, especially infants and children with low immunity.
According to him, “we have continued to enlighten and sensitize our people that immunization is the most cost effective and efficient way of preventing, treating and fighting diseases and in a massive way that touches all at the same time.
“It ensures a very healthy population as almost everybody in a targeted population group is reached and administered the immunization that gives adequate and rounded protection, while it is safe and secured,” he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has stipulated that the World Immunization Week is celebrated annually in the last week of April each year.
This year’s celebration, which is themed: “the Big Catch Up”, kicked off on April 24 and would run through April 30.
