Abuja, 25 May 2015- The Commissioners for Health in Imo and Kaduna States have extolled the partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Nigeria during the first quarter meetings of the Immunization, Vaccines and Emergencies (IVE) cluster in the Southern and Northern zones, conducted from 18 - 23 May, 2015.

The meeting for the southern zone was held in Owerri, Imo state during which the Commissioner for Health, Dr Edward Ihejirika led other senior officials of the Imo State Ministry of Health including the Permanent Secretary, to commend the tremendous efforts and technical competence with which WHO supports government towards polio eradication and other health issues in Nigeria in general and Imo state in particular. 

“The Imo state government will continue to benefit from the expertise of WHO in disease control. We welcome more of such efforts in the areas of routine immunization and disease surveillance. We thank you for choosing Imo state for your meeting and we assure you that you are always welcome here”, the Commissioner stated.

The participants in the southern zonal meeting included zonal and state coordinators as well as programme operations staff from the zone.

The Northern version of the quarterly review meeting was conducted in Kaduna, a state that has shown significant commitment to the attainment of polio eradication and broader child survival objectives as evidenced by polio-free status of the state since November 2012 despite being cosmopolitan and neighboring very high risk states. Also, Kaduna was the recipient of  the recent   Bill and Melinda Gates’ Foundation Leadership Award due to the significant reduction in maternal and child mortality in 2014.

Addresing WHO participants in Kaduna, Dr Joseph Thot,  the state commissioner for health, acknowledged on behalf of the government of Kaduna state, the support received from development partners in the state.

“I must register my special commendation to all developing partners led by WHO in the state for their overwhelming support during the Ebola outbreak crisis in the country. Though we did not record any case in Kaduna state, the role played by the partners in terms of enlightenment, prompt investigation and management of suspected cases is note-worthy”.

On polio eradication, Dr Thot disclosed that the state had consistently released funding to support different activities that complemented partners’ support during each round of Immunization Plus Days since 2012.

Both Commissioners who would soon be handing over the reins of leadership to new administration in their respective states, called on in-coming government to nurture the partnership with WHO  towards the attainment of the highest level of health by all Nigerians.

The IVE cluster lead, Dr Pascal Mkanda had reiterated the objective of the gathering to the audiences at both locations, which was mainly to review implementation of action points, work-plans and IVE programme performance in the first quarter of 2015 as well as provide updates on agreed priorities such as polio interruption, the polio End-Game strategy, disease surveillance, routine immunization, monitoring and accountability framework.

Also, he noted that the review meeting has provided a platform to understand challenges affecting performance in states and zones in order to provide optimal support towards achieving government’s set priorities.

The IVE meeting was adjudged as  timely since preliminary reports from the Sixty-Eighth World Health Assembly and endorsed draft resolution were discussed to ensure that Nigeria does not delay the global agendas of polio eradication and polio End-Game strategy.

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For more information, please contact:

Technical contacts:

Dr Pascal Mkanda; Tel: +234 803 402 2140; Email: mkandap [at] who.int
Media contact:

Ms Charity Warigon; Tel: +234 810 221 0093; Email: warigonc [at] who.int
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Below:

01. Dr Pascal Mkanda (right), Dr Abdullahi Sulaiman and Dr Audu Idowu at the quarterly review meeting

02. Group picture with Imo state Commissioner for health (middle) in Owerri

03. Group picture with  Commissioner for health (middle) in Kaduna