By Steve Oko

No fewer than 111,000 un-immunised children are targeted in Abia State for vaccination against five killer diseases including diphtheria, polio, hepatitis B, pneumonia and tetanus.

The 111,000 un-immunised children, according to the Abia State Immunization Officer, Mrs Chinwe Eke, are in six Local Government Areas.

She identified the affected LGAs to include : Aba South – 29,448; Ohafia LGA  -17,382; Obingwa -18670; Arochukwu 18,333; Osisioma – 16,837; and Umunneochi 10,339.

According to her, the main focus of the Big -Catch -Up vaccination exercise that started since December 9, is to cover the affected LGAs.

Mrs Eke who spoke with Vanguard Tuesday in Umuahia on the successes recorded so far, however, noted that only 30% of the target was covered as at Sunday.

She added that a mop -up exercise was conducted on Monday and Tuesday to get more children vaccinated against the killer diseases.

The Immunization Officer expressed hope that the gap would further be bridged in the remaining two vaccination exercises coming up in January and February 2025.

She explained that the Big -Catch -Up vaccination was designed to reach out to children that missed their routine immunization as a result of disruptions arising from COVID -19 pandemic.

According to her, the programme is a global mandate to ensure that every child who missed in the previous vaccinations is covered.

She added: ” You know that during COVID 19, a lot of children missed their routine immunization. So, we are on this exercise to catch up with those children missed during these years”.

According to her, the exercise is for children from 24 months to five years.

“When the national looked at our data, it was found that 111,000 have not received any of our antigens since birth”.

The State Immunization Officer commended UNICEF and the WHO for their supports to the programme.

” We are grateful to UNICEF which is providing the logistics support; and WHO that takes care of stipends to our facilitators and field workers “.

She equally thanked Governor Alex Otti for his strong support to the State PHC which she said, had enabled the state to win global recognition.

Recall that Abia recently won UNICEF grant of $400,000 for impressive performance in PHCs.

“Our Governor has meaningfully supported every of our programmes since he came on board, and that is the secret of our success story “, she said.