To commemorate with Nigerians on World Immunization Day, Nigeria’s senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has called on communities to embrace preventive health care strategies like immunization, in order to prevent the outbreak of preventable diseases.
The senate president said this while addressing journalists at the National Assembly Clinic on Thursday, April 27, 2017 where he led the Senate leadership to administer Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) and Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) on babies as part of activities to mark the World Immunization Day, in Abuja.
Saraki, a trained medical doctor, stated that in order to reduce the burden on the nation’s healthcare system, Nigeria must begin to push for preventive strategies to curb the spread of diseases and to stop citizens from falling sick.
“Vaccination is a key strategy to containing many diseases that currently exist in the country,” Dr. Saraki, who is a medical doctor, said.
“These include diseases like polio, as well as meningitis that has killed up to 745 Nigerians in the past few months.
“We need to encourage more families and communities to embrace vaccination against preventable diseases that are experiencing resurgence.
Here in the National Assembly, we are ready to provide funding for vaccines — meningitis especially.”
The Senate President also said that greater awareness for immunization must be undertaken by governments across all levels to ensure that the nation’s healthcare system is not overburdened.
“In order to reduce the burden on our healthcare system, Nigeria must begin to push for preventive strategies to curb the spread of diseases, any healthcare reform in Nigeria must start with an emphasis on prevention, rather than cure,” he said.
“And as you can see from the vaccinations I have just administered here, it is not something that is too difficult to carry out, the purpose of being here is to show that we in the National Assembly are already pushing for this,” the senate president added.
