The plan involves a continuous immunization campaign, which has been h — Cecilia Omaile Ojabo

"This issue is not unique to Benue State. There is an Act that allows the marketing of traditional medicine. I’m not suggesting we shut down their businesses, but we will monitor and regulate their activities. Just like in conventional medicine, doctors are prohibited from advertising their practices due to ethical guidelines. We need to educate these producers that advertising is not permitted in health-related matters. It is the quality of their results that should attract patients, not self-promotion."

"For instance, the Hausa community said because government does not want their population to grow, they have brought these drugs. They are alienating themselves from taking it and it is free. It has cost American government money to make these drugs available but because of the belief and lack of understanding they are not accepting the use of those drugs."

"In Benue, almost a whole community of Ikyor in Kwande local government Area of the state was rendered blind because of the Onchocerchiasis. The damage has been done before the Metizan drugs was made available. And for the healthy people in that community, the drugs were supplied to them."

"Benue is a hyper endemic area for the river blindness and if you take it because I also take it, worms will not blind your eyes. The other causes of blindness like glaucoma, glaucoma is our worst enemy. You may be carrying it and may not know until a specialist tells you that you have glaucoma and then you start early treatment. If glaucoma blinds you it’s irreversible but if diseases like cataract blinds you, it’s good news because it is reversible. So people should access the metizan drugs, use it to help themselves."

"The immunization programme has been very active and the people that are engaged are equally active. They have been going from house to house ensuring that children of those ages are immunized against the six killer diseases which polio is one of them. So the sustained action has given Nigeria the positive result."

"Polio is a viral disease and it multiplies where you have a dirty environment. But with the effective polio immunization programmes on ground, we will not have reoccurrence of cases of polio again. This goes for the other childhood diseases as well, If government can sustain the expanded programme on immunization, we will definitely get rid of polio and all other child killer diseases. And I want to assure that my office will ensure it is sustained in Benue here."