Tada Jutha, Maiduguri
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has delivered 699,000 doses of vaccines to the Borno state government to fight cholera and other water-borne diseases.
According to the Fund, the government has targeted 500, 000 people to be vaccinated against cholera, which was triggered by the recent flooding of Maiduguri metropolis and its environs.
Presenting the vaccine doses yesterday (Thursday) in Maiduguri, the UNICEF Chief of Maiduguri Field Office, Dr. Gerida Birukila, disclosed: “With the delivery of these vaccines, the flood victims in the affected communities are advised to take the oral vaccines,” stating that it will prevent the people from contracting the water-borne disease.
Additionally, she noted that the donated doses of vaccines were also to complement the Federal Government’s delivery of 300,000 doses of cholera vaccines to the Borno state government.
Other cholera emergency responses, she added, comprise reaching 105,680 people with sanitation, hygiene promotion, and water supply to residences and schools.
In her brief remarks, Hajja Fati Ali, Director in the Borno State Primary Health Care Development Agency (BPHDA), urged the flood victims to access the vaccines at various hospitals and other healthcare facilities in the state.
She stated that the oral vaccines are, however, harmless, and they do not affect the fertility of procreation among the couples.
