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The Oyo State Government has ordered the Ministry of Health to start the emergency immunisation of children in the state after five persons were killed by measles.
A government source, who spoke on condition anonymity, told our correspondent that all the deaths were recorded in the Sabo area of Ibadan.
Two weeks ago, the state government had announced that measles immunisation would be conducted between January 28 and February 1, 2016.
But the deaths recorded apparently influenced the latest directive.
“The state Ministry of Health will begin vaccination against measles on January 19, 2016 instead of the earlier scheduled date of January 28, 2016,” the source said.
“This is informed by the death of five people because of the disease. The state is committed to safeguarding the lives of the citizens.”
The state’s Health Educator, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Olawoyin, had earlier said that the exercise would target children from nine months to 59 months and that 2.5 million children would be given the vaccine.
She said, “In 2015, 761 blood samples from children were taken to the laboratory as part of the state measles surveillance activity.
“We had 9.7 per cent of the number with negative result while 3.7 per cent tested positive to measles.
“The number of children who tested positive in 491 cases in 2014 was 2.2 per cent while in 2013, 15.3 per cent of 567 blood samples belonging to children tested positive to it.”
The exercise will be conducted by the state government with support from the World Health Organisation and it will involve 15,708 personnel grouped into 2,244 teams.
WHO Measles Campaign Consultant, Adamu Bello, said that the rate of success in most vaccination was 85 per cent, with the rest would be subjected to a second chance.
