IMMUNIZE THEM, FORTIFY THEM

Children are a gift. Wlthout them, our future does not exist.

"Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see."

John W. Whitehead, founder, Rutherford Institute  

 Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa said:
"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."

Every people, every culture claims that they cherish children however, the true test is in their collective, visible, and assessable conduct and active commitment and disposition it has towards children.


IMMUNIZATION: Immunization is the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine. Vaccines stimulate the body’s own immune system to protect the person against subsequent infection or disease(WHO/Immunization).

Vaccination is one of the most important public health interventions. Vaccines are biological products with effects that can exceed the induction of immunological protection against specific diseases.(WHO, ) According to Berger, Immunization protects children not only from disease but also from complications.

Immunization is a proven tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases and is estimated to avert between 2 and 3 million deaths each year. It is one of the most cost-effective health investments, with proven strategies that make it accessible to even the most hard-to-reach and vulnerable populations. It has clearly defined target groups; it can be delivered effectively through outreach activities; and vaccination does not require any major lifestyle change. WHO/Immunization

Through the 1980s, UNICEF worked with WHO to achieve Universal Childhood Immunization of the six EPI vaccines (BCG, OPV, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and measles), with the aim of immunizing 80% of all children by 1990. Progress has continued since then: by 2010, a record 109 million children were vaccinated and global immunization rates were at 85%, their highest level ever. Of the world’s 19.3 million children not immunized with DPT3, 13.2 million (or 68%) live in 10 countries. Source: WHO/UNICEF.

I do not have access to accurate data, but people around me take their immunization schedule quite seriously.Parents in our care center, my cohort of mothers while I was making children and now hold immunization schedules in very high esteem. I am very  aware though that I mat be representing a very small segment of african women. Lack of participation is largely due to two major factors, politics( which has embeded in it a strong influence of religion) and poverty. Prevalent amongst these vaccine is the OPV, which is often rejected by some certain region.

ORAL POLIO VACCINE DISSEMINATION IN NIGERIA AND IN AFGHANISTAN
Unicef recently released a Statement report on the statistic of children who have never been immunized:

NEW YORK, 20 June 2012 – “The Independent Monitoring Board on progress with global polio eradication reports the significant finding that 2.7 million children in six countries have never been reached with a single polio vaccine. This is a clarion call to accelerate all efforts to reach these unreached children,” said Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF (Unicef Press Release).
It was quick to add  " many of these ‘never’ children live in volatile areas of conflict such as eastern DR Congo, northern Nigeria, the Northwest region of Pakistan" For Nigeria I can say boldly that resistance from rhe north is majorly resistance at western culture and religion

The method of disemmination is hospitals, health center, churches/mosques, door to door.
   

Success is recorded in Afghanistan of the same vaccine because Innovative methods were employed.  “We cannot rely only on the traditional approach of fixed vaccination stations in hospitals and mobile teams going from door to door,” said UNICEF Afghanistan Health Officer Dr. Farzana Maruf Sadat. “To reach all our children under five years of age with the polio vaccine, innovative paths must be deployed.

Vaccinators. waited in bus stations and along road checkpoints to catch traveling families. They attended wedding parties. They visited prisons, knowing that female prisoners usually bring their children along. And they were stationed in front of the Blue Mosque, a popular destination for tourists and the faithful
I recommend the same innovation for everywhere, especially, Northern Nigeria, where it is in record that some doubt exist, posing resistance for the vaccine.

RESOURCES

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/media_59662.html

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/afghanistan_53956.html

http://www.who.int/topics/immunization/en/

http://www.unicef.org/nigeria/