Communal Clashes Hinder Immunisation In Cross River

Director General, Primary Health Care Development Agency in Cross River state, Dr Betta Edu,  has said that communal clashes in some parts of the state were hindering full immunisation coverage.

Naija News understands that Edu made this known in an interview on Saturday in Calabar, the state capital while commemorating the World Immunisation and Africa Vaccination Week.

The Week, with its 2019 theme “Protected Together: Vaccine Work”, is celebrated in the last week of April with the aim of promoting the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against vaccine-preventable diseases.

She expressed fear that immunisation in some parts of Cross River was challenging due to the security challenges in the areas.

In her word, he said; “Communal clashes like we have in Ukelle Community in Yala Local Government Area against a part of Ebonyi and the crisis in Abi Local Government Area are some of the clashes that have made immunisation coverage in these parts low.

“We have too many hard to reach areas in Cross River, about 428; in an area like Belegete, you trek for 8 hours up and down mountains that are very steep, this makes it difficult to reach the people of these areas with vaccination.

“These are outside the fact that we have challenges in equipment that are not functional, we need more health workers, although, the state government is employing 1000 health workers to boost health service delivery in the state,” she said.