BY CHIOMA OBINNA

Donation of a walk-in cold room to the Lagos State government by the Japanese government will enhance storage capacity of vaccines for prevention of infectious diseases such as polio, diphtheria and malaria in the State.

A similar unit was donated in 2006 by the same Japanese government, Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris who made the observation during the commissioning of the unit recently said it would contribute significantly towards reducing and eliminating childhood preventable diseases through enhanced immunisation exercise.

He said immunisation remains the most cost-effective strategy towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals 4, which is geared towards the reduction of child mortality, noting that the donation was timely more so when the 2015 deadline for attainment of the MDGs was so close.

According to him, a cold room is particularly necessary at a time when the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) is set to introduce new and under-utilized vaccines that includes pentavalent vaccine which are DPT, Hepatitis B, Hemophilus influenza B and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCU) into the routine Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI).

“The goals of the pentavalent and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with Hib and pneumococcal bacterial infections. Attaining these goals will take many years and will require not only the supply of adequate quantities of potent vaccines but also addressing system component issues such as social mobilization, cold chain system, surveillance, capacity building, data management among others,” he said.

Ambassador of Japan to Nigeria Mr. Toshitsugu Uesawa who donated the cold room on behalf of his country observed that mortality rate of children aged below five had decreased drastically with improved immunisation.

UNICEF Country Representative, Dr. Suomi Sakai said significant investments towards providing adequate cold chain equipment to health facilities throughout the country had impacted positively on routine immunisation in Nigeria.”