Written by Ndidi chukwu
As Nigeria joined the rest of the world to celebrate World Polio Day, response from Nigerian masses who responded to U-report questions on polio shows that 90 percent of approximately 16,775 U-reporters will vaccinate their children against polio, this is against the backdrop of 6 percent respondents who would not accept vaccines for their children and 4 percent who are yet to decide whether to vaccinate their children against polio.
U-report poll – a weekly and simple question and answers platform is gradually gaining grounds with a growing number of Nigerians interested in making their voices heard through the fast spreading phenomenon.
It is a free SMS on any mobile phone network, which requests mobile phone users in Nigeria to simply text ‘JOIN to 24453’ to share information and contribute to health and other issues in their communities.
U-report last week sent, “Hello U-reporter, do you think Polio is still a major health problem in Nigeria? a)Yes b)No c)Not Sure” followed by another question, “Would you vaccinate your own children against Polio? a)Yes b)No c) Not decided”
Results released on Monday 27th October 2014 shows that 90% of U-reporters that responded to the polio poll, said they would vaccinate their children against polio.40% said they think polio is still a major health problem in Nigeria.
While the first question which asked if Polio is still a major health problem in Nigeria, had 16,612 respondents out of 73,093 polled, 40 percent said yes, 37 percent said no while 23 percent said not sure.
The latter question, “Would you vaccinate your own children against Polio” had 14,771 respondents out of 16,775 polled of which 90 percent said yes that they will vaccinate their children against polio, and 6 percent said no while 4 percent said ‘not decided”
U-reporters answers shows that awareness is on against polio, as the country has recorded only 6 cases this year, and efforts are on to totally interrupt the deadly infant disease by the end of 2014.
October 24 was World Polio Day. Nigeria is one of 3 countries globally with polio. Polio is a crippling disease that can only be prevented through immunization. Immunize and protect your children against polio and vaccine preventable diseases. Polio will soon be history if we do our part to ensure all children are vaccinated.
