The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF has tasked the Nigerian government to improve its commitment to ensuring that children across the country do not lack polio vaccination. The Chief of the UNICEF Field Office in Kano, Rahama Farah made the call at the commemoration of World Polio Day.
He said the event is to raise awareness of the importance of immunization of children to ensure their well-being, explaining that immunization remains the most cost-effective intervention to confront vaccine-preventable diseases, especially in children under 5 years of age.
He said despite the progress made in improving immunization coverage, Nigeria continues to face challenges in getting all eligible children vaccinated.
According to him ” For instance, across Kano, Jigawa and Katsina states, we have a total of over half million, 556,750, Zero Dose children: Kano -280,281; Katsina – 171,491; and Jigawa -104,978″
“These are children who should be vaccinated but have never received Penta 3 or one single dose of vaccination”. Nationally, Nigeria has an estimated two million zero-dose children. Unfortunately, Zero-dose children are at substantial risk of many diseases, including polio”
He noted that the move required strong commitment and leadership from everyone, the Government, traditional, religious and community leaders; health workers, influencers, actors and the media to achieve the desired objectives.
Farah, however, added that there is a need to adequately fund the health sector,
especially before and during polio vaccination campaigns.
He urged local government chairmen to get actively engaged and support immunization activities including their supervision of polio eradication efforts and their participation in review meetings during vaccination campaigns to ensure every child is vaccinated in their respective LGA.
