Rotary, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, others tackle health issues for Nigerians

About 5,000 infants and children in Imo State have received free vaccines against poliomyelitis courtesy of the Rotary Club of Nigeria, Owerri District.

The gesture, The Guardian gathered, was in commemoration of the 2023 World Polio Day and the determined effort of Rotary Club to help eradicate the disease in the state and beyond.

Speaking to newsmen at Owerri Municipal Council, one of the venues for the vaccination, the District 9142 Polio Plus Chair, Dr Sabastain Okwu, and representative of Rotary Family Health Days, Dr Chika Ogubuire, stressed on the need for continuous sensitisation about the disease as a means to completely eradicate it from the world.

They said: “The Rotary Club International, in partnership with the United Nation (UN), is committed to protecting every child against the disease and will continue to intensify effort towards achieving a polio free society.

Okwu said: “You will recall that from 1988, over 250 countries were endemic for poliomyelitis, and every year, 350, 000 children are paralysed. So, a bold step has to be taken.

“Since polio is not curable, it is entirely preventable. There has to be a programme or project to immunise children and protect them against the disease. And that is what we, the Rotarians have been doing.”

MEANWHILE, the National Coordinator, Rotary Family Health Days, Past District Governor, Bola Oyebade and the District Governor, Rotary International, District 9110 (Lagos and Ogun States), Ifeyinwa Ejezie, have called on every Nigerian to take advantage of the free medical exercise, which is expected to gulp more than $300,000 (N360, 000, 000), provided by Rotary and its partners to know their health status and get treatment.

This was disclosed at the flag off of three-day Rotary Family Health Days organised by Rotary International, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners, which was held at Rotary centre, Ikeja GRA, Lagos.

Oyebade, who emphasised that the three days health exercise will include screening and testing for cervical cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, malaria, diabetes, HIV among others, will hold in 127 locations across the country, which include 66 locations in Lagos and Ogun states alone.

He said: “This is a privilege for Nigerians both old and young, including babies, as drugs will be administered for various ailments, while nursing mothers and pregnant women will be given mosquito nets.”