As flooding triggered by heavy rainfall displaced many residents across Lagos, PUNCH Healthwise investigations have revealed that floodwaters in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area are disrupting routine immunisation by preventing mothers from accessing primary healthcare centres to vaccinate their babies, exposing children to deadly vaccine-preventable diseases such as polio, measles and other childhood infections. IDOWU ABDULLAHI reports
Three weeks after welcoming her third child at a traditional birth home, Mrs Anike Kareem had imagined cradling her newborn on the short trip to Awoyaya Health Centre in the Parapo community for the baby’s first routine immunisation.
Instead, the 33-year-old now spends her days staring at floodwaters that have swallowed homes and roads leading out of her house in the Gbetu area of Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area, Lagos State.
She now lives in the hope that the rains will subside and the floodwaters recede before her baby misses more life-saving vaccines.
“I just gave birth three weeks ago, and the flood has prevented me from taking my child for immunisation. The flooding was so severe that I couldn’t even leave the house. My child has yet to receive any dose of immunisation,” the petty trader told PUNCH Healthwise.
