Measles: Osun commences vaccination of 1.2m under-5 children

Osun State Government has commenced vaccination of 1.2 million under five children against measles and sought the cooperation of parents, teachers and caregivers to achieve the target.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Rafiu Isamotu said the state government was determined to vaccinate every child in the state against measles.

The Commissioner who was represented by the Executive Secretary of Osun State Primary Health Board, Dr. Kayode Adebayo Ogunniyi said the state government was committed to attaining the vision of eradicating measles by the year 2020.

He noted that majority of children targeted by the state government for the vaccination are in pre-schools and pleaded with operators of private schools across the state to cooperate with health workers deployed to administer the vaccine.

The Commissioner noted that any child that did not get the vaccine constitutes serious danger to other children, adding that failure to vaccinate children would expose them to measles which could result to death.

According to him, the devastating effect of measles especially on children, informed the priority given to it among other killer diseases.

He added that the state government will vaccinate children against other killer diseases such as polio.