Saturday Letter3
A child is a gift from God who should be nurtured to adulthood and this can be done when the child has required medical attention which serves as preventive measures against deadly diseases. One of the cardinal responsibilities of government to its citizens is to ensure that people live a healthy life. One way of doing this is protecting the younger ones who are vulnerable to killer diseases. Protection comes through vaccinations. Polio is a child killer disease and it is contagious. It is caused by a polio virus and spreads through contact with stool of an infected person or droplets from the sneeze or cough.
· According to experts, polio has a very big effect on children because it causes muscle weakness, paralysis to the body/legs, arm pain, neck pain, back pain, and headache which deny the victim physical, social and educational activities. The victim can also be denied peering, and stimatized in the society. The only remedy to polio disease is regular vaccination and improved personal hygiene.
· In the effort to eradicate polio in Nigeria, the global polio eradication initiative is led by the federal government with support from World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Rotary International and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is heartening that the country and indeed Africa will achieve the milestone of a wild polio free virus in six months if we sustain the present efforts.
· When the campaign was first introduced there was resistance from some households as some attributed it to a ploy by western countries to control birth rate in Nigeria. But with awareness by media, traditional and religious leaders, parents now present their children for vaccinations. With the feat achieved in acceptance of the vaccines, millions of children are expected to be administered with polio vaccines in each round of immunization exercises.
Rehinatu Bako, Dept of Mass Comm,
University of Maiduguri
