Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has said that the era of data falsification by health workers in polio eradication and routine immunisation in the state is gone for good.
Mr Akeredolu said this in Akure during the State Task Force meeting on polio eradication and routine immunisation.
He explained that the honest attitude of rebranded primary healthcare workers towards routine immunisation services across the 18 local government areas had begun to yield fruits.
“As you all know, the benchmark used in assessing our vaccination effort is the third dose of Pentavalent vaccine (Penta-3) and the records have it that the states real Penta-3 coverage for January-December 2018 is 79 percent.
“This is the true picture of our recent records and renewed attitude.
“It is my belief that should we continue to eschew the temptation of data falsification, we shall steadily advance from this coverage figure till every under-one child is immunised in Ondo state. I commend our primary healthcare workers for this genuine data,” Akeredolu said.
The governor further said his administration was committed to improving working conditions of health workers to boost their morale towards polio eradication, and improving routine immunisation.
Representing World Health Organisation (WHO), Opeyemi Ekun, said there had been no confirmed case of Wild Polio Virus in Nigeria since 2016, hence the nation would be certified polio-free by July 2019.
Mr Ekun added that part of the challenges included that of security, which impeded the health workers from visiting Fulani settlements and other remote areas.
He advised the state government to deal with the surge of kidnap cases in the northern part of the state to improve routine immunisation coverage.
(NAN)
