UNITED Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said 2.2 million children have not received routine lifesaving vaccines.
It noted while Nigeria has achieved progress in vaccination for children, especially in wake of COVID-19, the pace is still slow as the country is second in the world with ‘zero dose’ children (those without routine vaccination).
UNICEF, working with Federal Ministry of Health, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), World Health Organisation (WHO), GAVI, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has set a target to immunise at least one million children in the next 700 days.
At a briefing on State of the World Children (SOWC) report hosted by UNICEF Nigeria, Dr. Eduardo Celades (UNICEF Nigeria’s Chief of Health), said: “We are going to local governments and wards to find the ‘zero dose’ children. We have identified 100 most deprived councils in 18 states that are priority. Some of the states are Bauchi, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano, Lagos, Plateau, and others.
“COVID-19 slowed down progress made in vaccination; our priority is to catch up and recover. We have immunity gap to fill. Fifty seven per cent of children received Penta-3 vaccination in their first year, protecting them from five life-threatening diseases.
“Our long term plan is to strengthen Primary Health Care (PHC), not just at the facility level, but for the workforce, including doctors, nurses, midwives etc. We are also ensuring the facilities are well-equipped with water and infection prevention as well as control measures. At community level, we also want to ensure we have more community health workers.”
UNICEF’s Health Manager, Dr. Dorothy Odongo, said: “We work with states to expand the cold chain system to have space for vaccines…
‘’We use community mobilisers to convince people on need to vaccinate children. Traditional, religious leaders should drive the message by talking to their congregation and communities on right information about vaccines and benefits of vaccination.”