By Ebitonye Akpodigha
A total of 41 million children will be vaccinated against polio disease by the Federal Government by December 2016, the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, has hinted.
The Minister, addressing newsmen in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, said the move was to ensure complete eradication of the virus in Nigeria and Africa at large by 2017.
According to him, similar exercise will hold in Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Central African Republic.
“We have an elaborate ring fence immunisation that is going to take place not only in Nigeria, but also in Niger, Chad , Cameroon and the Central African Republic,” Prof Adewole said, stressing that, “Our target is for Africa to be free of polio by 2017.
“In Nigeria, we are planning five rounds of immunisation; we have done one in the immediate area, where we immunised about 800, 000 children.
“We will do another round of four states to 18 states and go back to do another round of 18 states.
“By December, we will have immunised nothing less than 41 million children under five years of age in Nigeria,” he told journalists.
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