No outbreak of polio in Delta, commissioner tells UNICEF delegation

Contrary to rumours, Delta State has not recorded any case of polio and has put a viable machinery in place to check any outbreak.

The state Commissioner for Information, Mr Patrick Ukah, said this when he played host to a delegation of United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF), in Asaba, the Delta State capital, on Thursday.

According to him, the state has over 200 health care centres spread over the council areas even as he said that maternal and child health care had been of great interest to the current administration.

He assured the delegation of government support for its programmes, which are still in the pipeline and stressed the need for early notification for assistance.

Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Mr Wilboard Ngambi, had said that concerns rose with the recent polio outbreak in Borno State which prompted the need to strengthen health care delivery system in the country.

Ngambi said that UNICEF had opened a new office in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, to oversee four states which include; Enugu, Bayelsa, Akwa-Ibom and Delta, adding that the essence of coming to Delta State, was to partner the state government.

“Our cardinal goals are centered on water project, health care for children between 0-5 years, voluntary counseling and polio eradication.”

Our visit is to secure a partnership with the Ministry of Information in the sensitisation of the public. The campaign against polio will hold in the state between November and December and children will be re-immunised against polio.”

Also speaking, the director, Oversee Development Agency (ODA), Ministry of Economic Planning, Mrs Patience Ogbewi, said that the 2016 work plan will be reviewed in the state soon.