Health Experts Advocate PPP for Immunisation in Bauchi

Experts within the sector of the routine immunisation have advocated for Public Private Partnership (PPP) with telecommunication firms and Nigeria Bottling Company (NBC) Coca-Cola to fund routine immunisation in Bauchi State.
The stakeholders envisaged that the funding was in line with the global polio end game strategic plan 2013 to 2018, which is aimed to sustain the zero polio case recorded for the past last 20 months and to “certify all local government areas in the state polio-free and ensure that polio virus stocks are safely contained,” among other objectives.
The health experts made the recommendation during a one- day roundtable discussion on routine immunisation indicators performance coverage and funding, as well as sustainability plan, organised by Community Health and Research Initiative (CHRI), on Monday, to mark this year’s “Africa Vaccine Week”, held at Emergency Operation Centre Bauchi.
The Executive Director CHRI, Mohammed Shuaibu, commended the tripartite agreement signed by the Bauchi State Government, Dangote and Bill and Melinda Gates, which is ongoing and is yielding results.
He added that the initiative provides a unique opportunity for the state to strengthen its immunisation programmes through advocacy and partnership, adding that this can only be done through creating awareness on the value and importance of immunization, increasing vaccines coverage and take up of new existing vaccines, prioritising services provision for the hard-to-reach areas with selected high impact to child survival package based on strong evidence, while at the same time increasing the funding for routine Immunisation programme.
He said that statistics showed that by 2018, it would cost government about N9, 000 to immunise a child in Nigeria, considering the large number of children in the country.
He appealed to the state government and relevant stakeholders not to relent in their polio eradication efforts.