Iduozee Paul, Benin correspondent
The Edo State immunization officer, Justina Aikhuele, has lamented that some nursing mothers refuse to immunize their children because of the lack of knowledge got about the benefits of immunization of children.
Making the observation during the sensitization meeting with media officers on Maternal Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) in Benin City, she said the main core of the event is to create awareness about the immunization of children in Edo State. She disclosed that the programme will commence Wednesday 28th 2019 to Sunday 1st, 2019.
According to Mrs. Justina Aikhuele, the target are children of 0-59months and women of child bearing age (15-49 years) in all health centers and designated centers in the state. The exercise will hold from 8am to 4pm daily, and the aim is to improve the health status of women and children and how they can be prevented from all forms of diseases associated with them.
Akihiele talking on the subject,” MNCHW Basic Concept and Rationale “(goal, objective and service), explained that some of the goals are: to enhance the capacity of health workers, to make women and children know their health conditions and the right steps to take to immunize children. Others are, to encourage mothers to go for ante-natal care and to ensure the death rate of women and children is critically reduced to the minimum level.
The state immunization officer also emphasized the need for women to know how to take care of themselves such as, cleaning of their environment, washing of their hands, sweeping of the kitchen and bathroom, sitting rooms often and keeping the compounds clean to prevent various kind of illnesses that affect new born babies and nursing women.
Speaking on “Health Promotion”, the state health educator, Mrs. Felicia Omokaro, advised nursing mothers to focus on exclusive breast feeding for the first six months and complementary feeding later.
She said other ways of promoting good health are, to prevent mother- to- child transmission of HIV/AlDS, observe personal hygiene, know about birth registration, give vitamin A supplements to children aged 6 months to 5 years, embracing family planning services, prevention of malaria using long lasting insecticidal nets, de-worming drugs to children and nutrition screening.
Mrs Felicia Omokaro explained that ante-natal services include malaria preventiontreatment and administration of Tetanus Diphtheria vaccine to prevent infection in women.
She said MNCHW is a week-long event for new- born babies, children, mothers and pregnant women and advised women to always take their immunization card along with them. She added that all health interventions will be provided for mother and child package of high impact with cost effective low cost preventive and curative services.
The event also featured question and answer sessions from journalists on how women can easily access health care, awareness on women needs relating to health care delivering, the right drugs and vaccines for children, among others.
The issue of how women can have access to primary health care centres in their locations, family planning idea to reduce number of children, how government should subsidies the money Ante-natal for them or make it free and many other factors affecting women and children in Edo state and Nigeria in Nigeria.
