Traditional and religious leaders have called on the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), to put in place quick response mechanisms for possible adverse reactions that could result from immunisation.

Their call is contained in a communique issued on Monday at the end of a national stakeholders’ engagement on integrated Supplemental Immunisation Activities(SIAs), held in Abuja.

The communique was co-signed by Dr Ahmad Mustafa, representing the traditional institution,  Rev Emmanuel Aribasoye, who represented the clergy, and Mrs Ebele Mgbemena, who represented the Ministries, Department and Agencies(MDAs).

They said that poorly managed adverse reactions from immunisation usually inform why some parents develop cold feet to immunising their children.

The NPHCDA, in collaboration with partners, were involved in the stakeholders engagement meeting with faith-based organisations, traditional institutions and representatives of MDAs.

The objective of the stakeholders engagement was to sensitise them on the upcoming integrated SIAs and how they could impact on the success of the campaign.

The engagement was also for them to agree on the expected roles of stakeholders in influencing demands for the vaccines and other Primary Health Care programmes and interventions.

The SIAs will be held in 26 selected states namely including Anambra, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Lagos, Rivers, Ekiti, Ogun and Ondo.

Others are Osun, Oyo, Benue, FCT, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Zamfara, Yobe and Borno.

The stakeholders recommended that the NPHCDA should conduct advocacy with support, and in collaboration, with key stakeholders.

“NPHCDA should ensure timely and accurate dissemination of information to support communication and social mobilisation for all groups – women, students, people living with disabilities and children.”

“NPHCDA should also provide adequate personnel for the campaigns and also support training and capacity building for relevant stakeholders,” the communique said.

The stakeholders said that NPHCDA should promote injection safety, and ensure quality and timely response to adverse events that could arise from immunisation exercises.

“It should also ensure adequate plans for the disposal of immunisation waste materials.

“NPHCDA should also share the call line list of all the stakeholders to state health education officers for sustained collaboration.

“It should endorse and implement all recommendations on the lessons learnt from the previous campaigns for improved programme management,” the communique said.

The participants promised to carry out their roles and responsibilities towards the successful vaccination programme.

They promised to support the planning and proper coordination of the campaigns and also assist in resolving cases of people not ready for the vaccinations.

They also promised to designate focal persons in the respective states and Local Government Areas to ensure successful campaigns.

“We will facilitate strong collaboration with all key stakeholders and mobilise all the relevant MDAs to be part of the project for effective synergy and positive results,” they said.

Speaking with newsmen, the Director, Advocacy and Communications of NPHCDA, Dr Ladan Aliyu, said that the integrated SIAs campaign would commence this month (September).

He said that their would be vaccines for cases of Yellow Fever, Tetanus and Diphtheria (TD), Human Papilloma Virus, among others.

The Director said that the NPHCDA was very much aware of the activities of anti-immunisation campaigners, but noted that they factored the said challenge in their planning stage so as to mitigate it.

“We have what we call Crisis Communication Plan for addressing issues at both national and sub-national levels, depending on the peculiarity of the case.

“The crisis communication plan is being implemented by experts; they are dispelling and quelling some of these rumours that stop people from being immunised.

“Bringing in traditional and religious leaders who are close to every community, to carry out this campaign is also part of our strategy to dispel some of the rumours carried out by anti-immunisation campaigners,” he said. (NAN)