**flags-off vaccination to children across Bayelsa
The Commissioner, Ministry of Health Bayelsa State, Prof. Seiyefa Brisibe and World Health Organization(WHO) in collaboration with Bayelsa State Primary Health Care Board(BYSPHCB) in accelerating the fight against vaccine preventable diseases flagged off Malaria Vaccine Introduction for children in age 5-11 months yesterday.
The Commissioner, Prof. Brisibe thanked, Her Excellency, Wife of the Governor, Dr. (Mrs.) Gloria Diri, for coming to flag-off the vaccination and other development partners for coming to see that Bayelsa State doesn’t play politics with the healthy living of children and everyone across the State.
He stated that Malaria is one of the leading causes of morbidity across the nation so it’s of invaluable significance to Bayelsans, he described the process as remarkable, one of the greatest milestones and breakthroughs in public health across the country realizing the leverage the vaccines will bring in terms of cost of treatments in previous years worldwide.
“Having this vaccine means that we’re going to have some leverage on the huge investments of treatments to invest in other areas like health infrastructure, critical health manpower gap and providing other health commodities and technology” he added.
The Commissioner assured Bayelsans of more health benefits having him as Commissioner, and called on health workers across Bayelsa State health facilities to waste no time in the distribution and introduction of the vaccine to children, he also called on caregivers, parents to use the opportunity to get their children immunized against the deadly disease, malaria.
Furthermore, Prof. Brisibe stated that malaria vaccination is now part of routine immunization schedule phases and urged continuous usage of long lasting insecticide nets (LLIN) and other preventive measures to ensure complete protection of the children across the State.
The flag-off which took place at Captain Amangala road, Yenagoa had in attendance the Permanent Secretary MOH, Dr. Mrs. Oluwatoyin Azebi, World Health Organization’s State Coordinator, Dr. Marcus, Directors of the State Ministry of Health, and other top government functionaries and health workers across the State and the country.
