Date: 2017-01-05

KWARA State government yesterday alerted traditional and community leaders in the state to their primary responsibility of mobilizing their subjects for vaccination against poliomyelitis.

The state's Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Sulyman Tolagbe Alege, who spoke in an interview with Nigerian Pilot in Ilorin on Wednesday, said traditional and community leaders are the gate-keepers for the prevention of polio outbreak in the state.

Apparently referring to a suspected case of poliomyelitis involving an infant detected in Ekpene-Eki community of Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State on Tuesday, Alege said the state had put in place all necessary measures for the prevention of the disease in the state.

He expressed the optimism that the state is free of the possible outbreak of the poliomyelitis because of what he described as" effective monitoring and evaluation of the health system.

The commissioner said: " The recent outbreak of Poliomyelitis in Cross River is a setback to the fight against the disease in the country, but I believe that it will not defeat the recorded success on polio eradication in Nigeria.

'While I am optimistic that the reported case of Poliomyelitis in Cross River will be properly handled, I want to assure you that Kwara State had put in place proactive measures to prevent its outbreak in the state "In view of this, I want to alert our traditional and community leaders to their primary responsibility of mobilizing and sensitizing their subjects on the need to make themselves available for polio vaccines.

With the cooperation of our esteemed leaders, polio will not have a place in our society because all children will be vaccinated.