ABAKALIKI, JULY 12, 2016 – Dr Emmanuel Azu, Consultant Paediatrian at the Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH), Abakaliki, on Tuesday urged nursing mothers to ensure regular immunisation of their newborns against child-killer diseases.He said in Abakaliki that regular immunisation of children from zero to one year was essential to build their immunity and insulate them from the deadly child-killer diseases.
According to him, routine vaccination by nursing mothers is essential to prevent infant mortality as well as ensure healthy growth and development of the newborn child.
He said that some preventable diseases that affect the child including polio, diarrhoea and hepatitis, among others, could be prevented through regular immunisation.
“The reduction or the near elimination of incidences of polio in Nigeria and other child-killer diseases is made possible through the regular immunisation campaigns.
“Also regular immunisation has put down the rate of child mortality as well as ensured healthy growth and development of the child.
“Nursing mothers should take advantage of the free immunisation exercises to ensure that their newborns are regularly immunised until they are a year old,” Azu said.
The physician said that immunisation was the right of the child but regretted that culture, religion and ignorance had made many nursing mothers to deny their newborns this right.
He called on the media and other relevant stakeholders to intensify the sensitisation campaigns aimed at educating especially the rural women on the dangers of not taking their newborns to approved hospitals for regular immunisation.
“I think what is needed now is for relevant stakeholders including the media to intensity awareness campaigns on the dangers of not taking children within the regular immunisation age to be immunized against the six child-killer diseases.
“The future of the child is better secured when everything that will threaten his health, growth and development is nipped in the bud,” Azu said.
