Polio: Lack of vaccine’s storage facilities lingers for 7years in Kano LG

Seven years after the official request and intensified follow ups in respect of provision of cold store to facilitate smooth implementation of under five children immunization against polio virus in Tarauni Local Government Area of Kano State, the concerned authorities have turned a deaf ear to the request, hence hampering the effectiveness of the exercise in the LGA.

Immunization cold store is a storage facility, housing refrigerators and standby power generator(s) where ice packs of polio vaccines are being kept to maintain potency of the vaccines.

According to the Council’s Official, procurement of the facilities would gulp at least five million naira.

The Primary Health Care Coordinator of the LGA, Comrade Nura Muhammad Rimigado, who raised the alarm while speaking with members of Journalist Against Polio JAP on the sideline of the ongoing polio immunisation exercise, said he had written at least three official memos and also lodged the complaint when the State Commissioner for health recently visited the LGA for inspection, all to no avail.

Comrade Rimigado said the facilities stopped functioning since 2011, the situation which is subjecting the medical team to receiving ice parks for polio vaccine from Emergency Operation Center at Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital and other temporary Cold Store at Unguwa Uku Primary Health Care before the vaccinators could accomplish their tasks during the implementation period.

The HOD said having observed how Governor Abdullahi Ganduje coordinated the affairs of polio activities for several years when he was the deputy governor, he believes the governor would gladly approve the procurement of the required facilities if the matter is brought to his table, therefore urging the local council administrator to do the needful by following due process through the ministry of local government.

Speaking recently during the pre-immunization press briefing, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr Ibrahim Getso confirmed that the state government had procured ten additional solar drive direct refrigerators worth over N40m, saying that they will soon be installed across the 44 LGAs in the State.

On the ongoing immunization, Comrade Rimigado said the LGA has covered 95% of the eligible children for the immunization as at the second day of the exercise, while the little rejection recorded were adequately resolved.