LSPHCB AND NPHCDA ORGANISES A STATE-LEVEL TRAINING ON THE INTEGRATED MEASLES VACCINATION CAMPAIGN IN LAGOS STATE.
The Lagos State Primary Health Care Board (LSPHCB) in collaboration with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) organized a State level training at LCCI, Alausa on the Integrated Measles Campaign coming up in Lagos State. The campaign would include the mass vaccination of children against Measles, Polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases. Covid-19 vaccines would also be available for adults aged 18 and above.
The two-day training began on Thursday the 9th of June to Friday the 10th of June 2022, and had participants from 57 LGA/LCDAs- Medical Officers of Health (MOH),
Local Government Immunization Officer (LIO) Disease Surveillance and Notification Officer (DSNO), Nutrition Officer (NO) and Cold Chain Officer (CCO), Health Education Officers, Monitoring and Evaluation Officers etc.
The training included information about the campaign’s Implementation strategies, zero dose reduction operation plan (z- drop), an overview of vitamin A supplementation, Advocacy, Communication, and Social Mobilization Activities, Approach to integrated logistics and waste management, Adverse events following immunization, Innovation in AEFI reporting, injection safety amongst others.
Dr. Mrs Adenike Oluwo, the Director of Medical Services and Disease Control LSPHCB, in her opening remarks, explained the rationale for the 2022 campaign was to eliminate measles and strengthen the PHC health system in line with the National policy, and that all PHC services must be integrated for efficiency and effectiveness. She added that “this year’s campaign is focused on improving quality and reaching all eligible persons, especially the zero dose children”.
The State Immunisation Programme Coordinator, Dr. Olubunmi Akinlade gave the objectives for the training and stressed the importance of achieving a 100% State coverage which requires an administrative coverage of 100% at Ward and Local Government levels, and implored the LGA team to use the opportunity provided by the measles follow- up campaign, to strengthen the immunization programme and health system as a whole.
According to Dr Akinlade, at the end of the training, participants would have increased knowledge of the right approach for integration, demonstration of the components, and the integration and management of clients at the vaccination sites. Other objectives according to her include the operationalization of the PHC integration approach and demonstrating the effective management of the vaccination sites.
The Measles vaccine will be administered to children between 9 – 59 months old, Routine immunization would be available for children from age 0- 23 months, Vitamin A supplements would be administered to children aged 6 – 59 months and covid-19 would also be available for adults aged eighteen years and above.
The training was anchored by different facilitators including development partners from UNICEF and WHO.