Lagos fears influx from polio prone zones

By CHIOMA OBINNA & GABRIEL OLAWALE

LAGOS — Lagos State government fears that the continuous influx of people into the state, especially from the northern states, where the polio cases are still recorded, may threaten the polio-free record of the state.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 4.3 million children are to be immunized with the polio vaccine   in the four-day Mop-Up Immunisation Campaign against poliomyelitis which began yesterday in Lagos.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, at a conference, blamed the increasing number of children unimmunised on influx of people into state from flood or violence prone states.

Idris, who acknowledged that immunisation remains the most cost-effective and efficient strategy to prevent the scourge, urged parents to ensure that their children under the age of five get immunized.