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Borno partners WHO, UNICEF, to vaccinate 1.2m IDPs against Yellow Fever

By Njadvara Musa, Maiduguri
10 February 2018   |   3:27 am
The Borno State Government is to partner the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF in the vaccination of 1.2 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) against yellow fever that has claimed 45 lives presently. The UNICEF Country Representative, Mohammed Fall disclosed this yesterday in Maiduguri. The targeted people to be vaccinated during the phase II exercise…

The Borno State Government is to partner the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF in the vaccination of 1.2 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) against yellow fever that has claimed 45 lives presently.

The UNICEF Country Representative, Mohammed Fall disclosed this yesterday in Maiduguri. The targeted people to be vaccinated during the phase II exercise are in various camps and host communities of Borno state.

According to him, the two UN agencies and other partners are supporting the Borno Ministry of Health to vaccinate over 1.2 million persons across 57 wards in 25 Local Government councils.

He said over 3,000 WHO-trained volunteers, senior supervisors, monitors, healthcare workers and community leaders, will immunize IDPs between the age of nine months and 45 years old. He said the massive vaccination centres are designated at health facilities in camps and host communities.

This vaccination campaign, which began on February 5, will end on Wednesday, February 14, 2018. The WHO representative in Nigeria, Dr. Wondimagegnehu Alemu also said even though there was no outbreak of Yellow Fever in in the state, vaccinating displaced persons is of public health importance to protect them.

The IDPs are most-at-risk, as they live in high-risk conditions and to prevent the spread of yellow fever, if there was an outbreak. Yellow fever is a viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes.

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