The Federal Government on Tuesday announced a plan to vaccinate over 2.9 million children in Ogun State with the Measles-Rubella vaccine to protect children between the ages of nine months and 14 years from life-threatening diseases and death.

The State Coordinator of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Mr Solape Folarin, stated this at the Flag-off Ceremony of Measles-Rubbella Vaccination Campaign held at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta.

Folarin, who revealed that 17 per cent of the state’s total population in 2025, amounting to the targeted 2.9 million eligible children, were required to take the vaccination, stressing that the vaccination campaign would be taken to churches, mosques, marketplaces, and other social gatherings to ensure the children were well vaccinated.

He said that the FG, in partnership with organisations including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), the State Ministry of Health, and First Lady Mrs Bamidele Abiodun’s AJOSE Foundation, said that the vaccination campaign would last 10 days.

The Coordinator said, “We are targeting 2.9 million children in Ogun State. For the measles-Rubella campaign, the target age group is from nine months to 14 years. This represents 17 per cent of the state’s total population. So 17 per cent of our total population for 2025 is the actual 2.9 million eligible children that we are targeting.

“The campaign is just for 10 days, with two mop-up days. From today, 27th January, to 5th February, it will be 10 days. Our health workers will be going across all the vaccination schools, markets, churches, and mosques to vaccinate children from nine months to 14 years. By the time it is 5th of February, the 10 days will end,” he noted.

Speaking, the State Commissioner for Health, Mrs Tomi Coker, said that measles-rubella, a viral disease, remained one of the leading causes of childhood mortality globally and posed several risks, particularly to pregnant women, resulting in lifelong complications for the unborn children.

Coker said that the complications caused by the disease included visual impairment, congenital blindness, deafness, mental and growth retardation, among others, and stressed that measles-rubella outbreaks can occur when vaccination coverage is low, putting children at risk of serious complications and death.

She said that the vaccination campaign in the state was aimed at vaccinating over 2.8 million eligible children with the measles-rubella vaccine, protecting children against measles and rubella infections, preventing congenital rubella syndrome in newborns, reducing childhood morbidity and mortality, and strengthening routine immunisation and disease surveillance systems.

“The campaign underscores the Ogun State Government’s commitment to ensuring that no child is left behind in the fight against vaccine-preventable diseases. Government Commitment to Child Health. Under the visionary leadership of His Excellency, Prince Dapo Abiodun, CON, the Ogun State Government has continued to prioritise maternal, newborn, and child health as a cornerstone of sustainable development,” she added.

Earlier, Mrs Abiodun said that the gathering was “a declaration of our collective resolve as a nation to say ‘No More’ to the diseases that steal the future of our sons and daughters,” urging parents and guardians to bring their children for vaccination to prevent life-threatening diseases, and insisting that the Dapp Abiodun-led administration is committed to the well-being of children in the state.