Two health officials at Lagos Mainland Local Government in Ebute Meta, Lagos, on Sunday decried the low level of compliance by indigenes with routine immunisation of children.

Mrs Oluwatoyin Ipaye, a health official, and Mrs Folake Bakare, the council apex nurse, spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Sunday.

Ipaye said that the turnout for immunisation of vaccines against deadly diseases, which started on Wednesday, was very poor.

The vaccines are Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG), Yellow Fever, Pentavelent Injection, Measles, Hepatitis and Vitamin A Supplement for children.

Ipaye said that in spite of various incentives provided to encourage parents to bring out their children for immunisation, many still did not present them for vaccination.

“The immunisation is very important to children because report sent to us shows that Lagos State is next to Kano on the number of cases of unimmunised children.

“This kind of report is not good in relation to the population of the state and considering the contributions of the state to the economy and health.

“We are faced with many challenges as regards the immunisation; if Lagos formed the nucleus of unimmunised children, we should consider the effect on the population of the country.

“We have enough mobilisers recruited among the natives who can communicate with them and interpret the message to them. The indigenes work with us.”

Ipaye also said that part of the problems facing health officials in the council area included inaccessible roads in areas with difficult terrains, while many residents were not giving birth at registered maternity centres.

“The lager part of the council area is a slum and some with difficult terrain with houses built off-shore.

“Some of the locals also prefer to have their birth at unregistered traditional homes where they will not have record of birth of their children and no information on the need to immunise their children.

“We are compiling the list sent to us to access if we can meet the target set for us.

“The target is 16,984 children in a week and we will do our best to ensure that the local government gets the best.

“For the supplementary immunisation in line with the government directive, water bottles were provided free for children to encourage the natives to bring out their wards.”

Also speaking, Bakare said that the council officials would do everything possible to achieve the set goals of the programme.

“We are trying to look for the unimmunised children to get them vaccinated; we are tracing the addresses of those that did not come to the clinic for immunisation.

“We are tracking them to complete their immunisation, but we have realised that some did not put down traceable addresses, while some may have relocated to other places.

“The community tracers are watching out for all the details and ensure that they are located, but the attitudes of the locals are not encouraging at all.

“They are always complaining that their children developed high temperature after vaccination, which we have found not to be true.” (NAN)

•Photo shows Gov. Ambode.

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