The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in collaboration with the Plateau State Primary Health Care Development Board, has targeted 162,000 children, who have missed their routine vaccines.

The UN agency is scouting for children yet to complete their vaccines in 200 local council areas in the country. Plateau, one of the states with zero-dose children, has eight of its councils being targeted for the ‘Big Catch-up Immunisation’ exercise.

A Health Officer at the UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, Patrick Akor, while speaking during the ongoing immunization, stated that zero-dose children were kids without vaccines at the age of 12 and 23 months.

The Guardian observed that the immunisation teams were deployed to Jos North and South councils within the Jos metropolis, where vaccines were taken to households and schools to scout for zero-dose children.

Also, the global agency has partnered with the Adamawa State government to distribute 4,290 cartons of Small Quantity Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplements (SQLNS) to tackle malnutrition and related diseases.

The donation, officially handed over in Yola, yesterday, by the Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Bauchi, Dr. Nuzhat Rafique, contained approximately 2.57 million doses to benefit at least 85,000 children.

She commended the state government for leveraging the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) mechanism, which UNICEF manages, with support from international donors. The Commissioner for Health and Human Resources, Felix Tangwami, attributed the rising malnutrition rates to insecurity and insurgency that had disrupted farming and limited access to nutritious food.

He assured that the supplements would be properly distributed to reach the intended beneficiaries. Executive Chairman of Adamawa Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Bashir Sulaiman, applauded the state’s swift action in securing funding.

He revealed that the governor had already released N100 million towards the matching grant for SQLNS procurement, and had committed an additional N300 million for the year to sustain the fight against malnutrition.