FG wades into NYSC meningitis vaccination uproar

By Sola Ogundipe

LAGOS— The Federal Government has waded into the uproar emanating from confusion over the requirement for meningitis immunisation, as recommended by the Directorate of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC.

A meeting of the Federal Ministry of Health, FMOH; Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control, NCDC; National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA and NYSC has been called for tomorrow and Wednesday, even as the  Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has assured that the Federal Government would be responsible for immunising all corps members sent to meningitis-prone areas.

With this development, thousands of the 2017 Batch A prospective corps members currently facing harrowing time obtaining meningitis immunisation at government and private health institutions may soon heave a sigh of relief.

Disclosing this to Vanguard, in a telephone chat, Technical Assistant, Communication, NCDC, Dr Lawal Bakare, said the meeting would provide common ground for resolution of the issues at stake.

He said: “A meeting has been called between the NCDC, FMOH, and NPHCDA and the NYSC on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The NYSC cannot unilaterally do anything on vaccines; even the NCDC cannot make pronouncements on vaccines because we are not custodians of vaccines. That is the duty of the NPHCDA.”

Last week, the NYSC Directorate, on its Portal, stated that in addition to mandatory medical examinations carried out at government hospitals including Military hospitals, Prospective Corps Members “are encouraged as a matter of priority to be immunised against cerebrospinal meningitis before reporting to camp”.

But in desperate search for the elusive meningitis vaccine, intending Corps Members have been at the mercy of sharp practices and perpetrators of illegal sale of Meningitis C vaccines.

Investigations reveal that a dose of the meningitis vaccine available at some private hospitals in Lagos goes for minimum of N9, 000 while claims of payments as high as  N15, 000 were also encountered.

Bakare, who noted that although the directive was probably only a recommendation which is part of prevention generally, however said any unilaterally talk about vaccines would make it become a case of heightened demand and the country does not have sufficient doses.

“If you recall the old National Programme of Immunisation, NPI, has been moved into the NHPCDA as custodians of vaccines in Nigeria. It was moved several years back and that is why anything on immunisation in Nigeria is under the NHPCDA, so nobody else has authority to manage these things.

“We are going to meet with them on Wednesday and will issue a joint statement just to make sure we are on the same page.

If they want the immunisation to be done at the NYSC camp, that can be arranged, so those as the Corpers come in, the vaccines would be administered to them.

 

 

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