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Assessing The Knowledge Of Health Workers (routine Immunization Officers) About Cold Chain System
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BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Ushongo local government area is one of the
23 local government areas in Benue state which was created in may1989
from Kwande Local Government Area by the then Head of state General
Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. It is located between latitude 70 in the
eastern part of Benue state with a total population of 268529 projected
from 2006 population census. It bound with Gboko Local Government Area
to the North and North-West, Buruku local government area to the
north—east, Kwande local government area to the east, Vandeikya local
government area to the south and Konshisha Local Government Area to the
west. The local government headquarter is Lessel town situated along
Gboko-to-Ihugh road, about 135km away from Makurdi her state capital.
Her land area is 1228km.2 the postal code of the area is 982. The name
of the local government is derived from Ushongo hill located at Ushongo
town in Mbayegh council ward.
It is significant to understand that
Ushongo local government area was privileged to be a UNICEF assisted
local government between 2006 to 2015.within this time it receive
tremendous supports from UNICEF, NPHCDA, WHO and BSMH to national
program on immunization (NPI). The cold chain system of Ushongo local
government was boosted with the capacity of 13 solar and 9
refreegilators.2 in stored in LGA cold store, and one in each
comprehensive health center across the eleven council wards in the local
government area. This is to serve a total population of children
0-11mths 10742 which constitutes 4% of the total population, children
0-59mths 53706 which constitute 20% of the total population, pregnant
women 13426 which is 17% of the total population and women of child
bearing age 59068 which constitute 22% of the total population. Also,
considering the high cost of vaccines with the nature of the sensitivity
to heat which need to have a smooth and effective cold chain
system.Furthermore, NGOs (GAVI), Government at various levels, donor
agencies like WHO, UNICEF, stakeholders and all the concern bodies are
putting in the best for children health care most especially in term of
immunization services. Nevertheless, the cold chain status of Ushongo
Local Government Area according to 2018 cold chain inventory out of 14
solar refrigerators, ten (10) are no longer functional, the four (4) are
partially functional. Another thing is that shortly after 2015 measles
campaign there was an outbreak of measles in four council wards which 47
children within the age range were affected, 32 (68%) with record of
been vaccinated with measles but there was no sera conversion which
means the vaccine was not potent in 2016. Similarly, 59 children across
the local government have BCG failure when post program evaluation was
carried out as a result of vaccine failure due to lack of potency as of
2018. The last stroke that Brock the female camel’s back was the
implementation of measles vaccination campaign in December 2017 that was
pros ponded and shifted to February 2018 because there was no good and
adequate icepacks to implement the program, until icepacks were borrowed
from a neighboring local government area. Another problem was that, in
August 2018 a WHO consultant on his supervision discovered thousands of
doses of different vaccines that has been kept wasted over time due to
lack of functional storage facility as said by the routine immunization
officer and confirmed by the supervisor.
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