The General Hospital, Ijede, has organised a sensitisation campaign for patients and residents of the Gberigbe community on immunisation and malaria disease as part of activities to commemorate the Year 2022 World Immunisation Week.
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Speaking to nursing mothers at the facility on the importance of immunisation, the Assistant Chief Nursing Officer (ACNO) at the facility, Nurse Mary Okoh informed the participants that the administration of vaccines to infants and individuals is highly effective in reducing the severity of many diseases.
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She explained that immunisation is the process of giving the vaccine to protect persons against a target disease, while a vaccine is an antigen that you give to a child, infant or individual to make them develop immunity and protection from childhood killer diseases.
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According to her, vaccination builds the immune system and reduces individuals’ chances of being infected or dying from an infectious disease.
The ACNO disclosed further that apart from the popular vaccine for COVID-19, there are other types of vaccines such as Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, Hepatitis B vaccine, Penta vaccine, Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), HIV Vaccine and Tetanus Toxoid vaccine among others.
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While noting that there are some Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI), which include fever, pain at injection sites, injection sites being swollen, irritability in children and fainting in severe cases, Nurse Okoh informed that these adverse events differ among individuals because the body reacts differently to antigens, which are most often not life-threatening.
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She, however, implored nursing mothers to cultivate the habit of taking their infants to the clinic to complete their immunisation schedule as it would go a long way in reducing the severity of diseases in society.
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In the same vein, another sensitisation campaign was carried out by the Service Charter team for residents of Gberigbe and students of Gberigbe Community Primary and Secondary Schools on the essence of taking good care of the environment to reduce the scourge of malaria in the community, the different types of vaccines and the essence of immunisation.