Says 378,677 zero-dose children received routine immunisation
The Federal Government has released N68 billion for the co-financing of Nigeria’s vaccines for immunisation with the Gavi Vaccine Alliance.
This has helped to avert an intended stockout of critical vaccines for routine immunisation, which the country would have experienced earlier in the year.
Meanwhile, about 378,677 zero-dose children received routine immunisation during the vaccination campaign.
Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Muyi Aina, disclosed this during the quarterly media briefing, yesterday, in Abuja,.
He recalled that the agency had a massive vaccination campaign that targeted 106 million Nigerians between zero and 14 years old for different categories of interventions, including the measles-rubella vaccine, the polio vaccine, HPV vaccine for young girls that are nine years and malaria interventions in high-burden states.
Aina noted that the first phase of the vaccination campaign took place in 21 states, comprising 19 northern states, Oyo State in the South-West and the FCT, adding that the team was able to reach about 39 million children with the polio vaccine, 677,789 adolescent girls with HPV vaccine, 949,401 children with malaria vaccine, 59,395,912 children with measles-rubella vaccine, which is 92 per cent of what was anticipated.
He said that during the campaign, which provided treatment for some Neglected Tropical Diseases that are ravaging a high number of communities, 1,422,673 persons were treated for onchocerciasis, 659,978 persons treated for lymphatic filariasis, while 353,232 persons received treatment for trachoma, among others.
According to him, the second phase of the campaign will take place in January and February 2026, targeting the rest of the states.
The NPHCDA boss stated that the agency had done a mapping of the zero-dose locations, which is where children have been perpetually missed, adding that it is in the same places the country is having the highest maternal mortality, hence the agency is implementing Identify, Enumerate and Vaccinate (IEV) strategy, which is a house-to-house immunisation approach primarily used by the agency and its partners to reach “zero-dose, under-immunised children and pregnant women.
Aina noted that the NPHCDA had identified 7.4 million people in priority states, which are all in the mapped hard-to-reach areas.
He said that the Federal Government is scaling up efforts to reduce maternal, newborn, and child mortality in line with President Bola Tinubu’s directive to prioritise investments in maternal and child health.
