IMMUNIZATION IN OUR LOCALITY
Immunization. which is a means of making adults and small children resist deadly and killer diseases, is very important in our locality. Several years ago. a lot of children were lost to several ravaging killer diseases like measles, small pox, whooping cough and diarrhoea in their infancy. It was fashionable then to tag these children 'abiku' or `ogbanje' because parents did not know that their children should be prevented from these deadly diseases. However, with the discovery of the various vaccines which. when injected into the body. can protect peoples especially children against deadly diseases, many people have embraced the immunization programme.
It is very important that our people should see immunization of children as the only way to prevent the outbreak of these killer diseases. Looking around our locality. one can see that many women have suffered greatly from children whom they erroneously called 'abiku' They quickly get old after undergoing several laborious child labours with no child or one or two children to show for it. It is high time our people embraced immunization of their children. Gone are the days when people hid when immunization officials arrived our locality.
Furthermore, we have a lot to gain and nothing to lose if we allow our children to be immunized A child immunized against these deadly diseases will grow to become a healthy adult. Therefore if our locality can allow its children to be immunized. infant mortality will be reduced and healthy and energetic youths will emerge out of these children to replace the old labour force in the farm.
Immunization. to my mind is what we seriously need in our- community. It will assist in reducing the incidence of children's deformity in our society. A lot of children have been dealt a deadly blow by diseases like polio, measles and small pox and as a result of this, they are unable to use their legs It is expedient, therefore, that we should reduce drastically the alarming rate of which our children grow up to become handicapped.
Finally, our women should be encouraged to surrender their children for immunization whenever the local government immunization officials come to our locality to vaccinate the children The advantages of immunization cannot be quantified. If we do not want to be left behind by the whole world and we do not want to continue to lose our children to these ravaging diseases which are preventable. we should embrace immunization
Njoku lfeanyi
SS 3B.