The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has blamed the shortage of vaccines being experienced across the states of the federation on the ? recent bomb blast at the United Nations House.?
The acting executive director of the ?Agency, Dr Emmanuel Abanida who made this known during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja ?yesterday, said ?that the bomb that shattered the UN building affected UNICEF, the agency that assists the country in the purchase of the vaccine.
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This, he said, had made it difficult for the country to meet its immunisation targets across the country.
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Abanida said that this explanation had become necessary because of the agency and its development partners’ commitment to transparency and accountability even as he said that the public had the right to know the challenges they were facing in trying to serve them.
He also called on the federal government to make adequate provision for the procurement of vaccine in 2012 budget.
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According to him, so far, the agency has approached the federal government to plead with it to remove the fund meant for the purchase of vaccines and other valuables from capital budget and place it in recurrent budget to reduce the bureaucracy and delay associated with the release of the fund.
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He added that, so far, plans were underway to ensure that the fund for vaccines were put on first line charge to facilitate the process.
Abanida also added that the prevailing shortage would not have been so noticeable if not that ?the fund meant for the normal immunisation was used to fund the measles campaign which was not budgeted for last year. ?
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He pointed out that the agency had to be proactive and ensure that they prevented an outbreak of measles and save the lives of millions of children that would have lost their lives.
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He said, “I am not trying to defend myself but I am only trying to explain the technical involvement in it, the government is preparing to raise funds for the procurement of vaccines on time to meet up the gap. I sincerely tender my apologies to Nigerian mothers and children and ?reassure Nigerians that the vaccines will be distributed accordingly.
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“Nigeria was to lose hundreds of children this year if fund was not raised to procure vaccine for measles, we intend to work closely with States and Local Governments to make sure that we meet up with some of the states that are left behind”.
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He commended all their development partners for the swift and systematic mechanism put in place to ensure that the vaccines were purchased and the gaps being noticed in some states adequately filled despite the challenges due to the loss of their work place.
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Abanida added that a ?committee of health experts was presently working round the clock to ensure that the shortage of vaccines did not repeat itself and said that “in the mean time, all available funds have been sent to UNICEF to facilitate the immediate purchase of vaccines to close the gap.”
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