Kogi free of yellow fever in 40 years ―Govt

Kogi State government on Thursday said concerted efforts had been put in place to make the state free of yellow fever disease for the next 40 years.

It said adequate vaccination had been conducted across the state in the bid to prevent the outbreak of the dreaded disease.

The executive director, Kogi State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (KSPHCDA), Dr Abubakar Yakubu, who said this at a press conference in Lokoja, the state capital, noted that the state had been working with necessary development agencies on the prevention of yellow fever.

According to him, the agency in collaboration with the state ministry of health, World Health Organisation (WHO) and other development partners had conducted yellow fever reactive vaccination across the state.

The exercise, according to him, is aimed at preventing an outbreak of the dreaded disease in the state in the next 40 years.

He revealed that in course of the continuous investigation on vaccination and feedback on yellow fever outbreak in the state, the agency scaled up the vaccination to cover all the 21 local government in the state.

Yakubu, however, disclosed that the WHO was impressed with the steps taken by the state and scored it high on the success of the exercise.

The agency, he revealed, also held Maternal, Newborn and  Child Week and conducted Cerebrospinal Meningitis vaccination in parts of the state in November, last year as part of efforts to boost primary healthcare delivery at the grassroots.

He, however, lauded the contributions of WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) AFENET, CHIP and MCSP and implored other partners to come to assist the state in the fight against childhood killer diseases as.

“There is no state government that posses the resources to develop Primary Health Care alone even in the most developed societies”, he pleaded.