The Ogun State Government has announced plans to vaccinate no fewer than 2.9 million children against measles and rubella as it rolls out a statewide vaccination campaign scheduled to run from January 20 to January 29, 2025.

The campaign, targeting children aged nine months to 14 years, was unveiled during a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Ogun State Primary Health Care Board (SPHCB) in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, yesterday to sensitise partners, including media practitioners, ahead of the exercise.

Rubella, also known as German measles, is a contagious viral infection that usually causes mild fever and rash but poses severe risks to unborn babies when pregnant women are infected, often resulting in blindness, deafness, heart defects, and other congenital abnormalities.

Speaking at the meeting, the Executive Secretary of the Ogun State Primary Health Care Development Board, Dr Elijah Ogunsola, said the campaign would adopt a ward-to-ward and settlement-to-settlement approach to ensure wide coverage across the state.

Ogunsola disclosed that health workers would visit not less than 20,000 settlements during the campaign, assuring residents that vaccination points would be located close to their homes.
“We are doing ward-to-ward and settlement-to-settlement campaigns. What it means is that we will be in every settlement. However, we are not going from house to house.
“We will look for a central place in each settlement, and members of our team will go round and call them out for vaccination.
“The plan is that wherever you are, our team will be within 500 metres of your house, so you don’t have to go far before you get vaccination. Secondly, we are targeting schools,” he explained.
He further clarified that the campaign would officially end on January 29, after which routine vaccination would resume at health facilities.
Ogunsola stated, “Immediately that campaign is over, by February 1st, that campaign will stop. Any child that has clocked nine months at that point will then come to our health centre for their own MR vaccine.
“The campaign is for children from nine months to 14 years. After the campaign, we will only administer vaccination to children of nine months and 15 months. That is why we encourage parents to avail themselves of this opportunity so that everybody can be captured, because thereafter, we will not be able to handle any child.”
Also speaking, the Director of Disease Control and Immunisation, Dr Thomas Solarin, stressed the dangers posed by both diseases, particularly rubella, which has severe consequences for unborn children.
He said, “Measles and rubella are very related. However, measles is more powerful and kills children more than rubella.
“Measles does not affect pregnant women; rubella does. Once a woman has rubella, it will affect the child in her womb. When those children are born, some of them will become blind, some will be deaf. A lot of holes in the heart of a baby are because the mother had suffered rubella.”
In his presentation, the State Health Education Officer, Alhaji Waheed Elegbede, provided alarming statistics on the disease burden in Nigeria and globally.
His words: “Nigeria recorded 719 deaths from measles. Rubella burden in Nigeria is under-documented due to limited surveillance. However, seroprevalence studies indicate a high level of susceptibility in women of childbearing age.
“In 2024, the global burden of congenital rubella syndrome continues to be a significant public health concern, with approximately 100,000 babies born with CRS.”
The health authorities urged parents, caregivers, and community leaders to support the campaign by ensuring eligible children are presented for vaccination during the exercise.