By Sahelian Times
The Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency is to vaccinate 900,000 children from age 15 and below against polio.
Wife of the state governor, Mrs Linda Ayade, disclosed this in Calabar, the state capital on Monday.
She spoke just as the agency claimed that it has gone to the extent of fraternising with militants to enable it to administer polio vaccines to children in the riverine communities.
Mrs Ayade said, “We are targeting about 900,000 children who are to be vaccinated in the state. We are told that Cross River State and Benue have shown the signs of having the virus.
“Who knows where all of us could have been without vaccination.”
Speaking earlier, the Director-General, Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Janet Ekpenyong, called on parents in the state to present their children for vaccination to avoid being paralysed.
She said, “We are asking all parents to notify us of any child 15 years and below with signs of paralysis.
“We are leveraging on the campaign to see that any child less than 15 years that shows signs of paralysis of lower limbs, you should please report to appropriate quarters.
“To tell you how committed we are in our campaign to have a healthy population in time to come, we have gone to the extent of fraternising with militants to enable us to administer polio vaccines to children in the riverine communities.”
Also speaking, Chairman Cross River State Women Medical Doctors, Vivian Otu, said that 50 percent of children in Cross River State have been vaccinated, adding that available statistics shows that a lot of children were yet to be vaccinated against polio