By Juliet Jacob
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has raised concerns that 2.2 million Nigerian children representing 30% of the entire children population in the country are missing out on immunization.
According to the UNICEF Nigeria chief of health, Dr. Eduardo Celades at the State of the World Children (SOWC) briefing, “It is sad that Nigeria has such a large size of children missing out on all forms of vaccination accessibility,” insisting that quality leadership is key to getting these challenges solved.
He said despite these challenges, many children have continued to be immunized in the country and that over 15,000 additional community health workers have been trained in recent times.
Celades also disclosed that over 1,700 Primary Health Care facilities (out of 3,476) in 14 States meet PHC minimum standards, adding that 25 health facilities have functional level 2 newborn units.
He said there are several state-level and national capacities built to prepare and respond to public health emergencies.
Further according to him, over the past five years, one major accomplishment has been the increase in Penta-3 vaccinations, administered to children under age one to protect them from five life-threatening diseases.
He disclosed that Penta-3 coverage rose from 33 percent to 57 percent, reaching 7.9 million children, noting that another major success was the 84 percent decrease in cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 in 2022.
Despite an outbreak of the disease, the number of children vaccinated against polio tripled to 58 million thanks to joint efforts with partners, Celades noted.
He said in keeping with UNICEF’s global nutrition strategy, the emphasis has shifted from the treatment of malnutrition to its prevention, explaining that Vitamin A supplementation is one key preventive intervention that promotes child development and lowers the risk of cognitive delays and child mortality due to malnutrition.
For the first time in five years, two rounds of Vitamin A supplementation were successfully completed in Nigeria in 2022, he disclosed noting that 35 million children received one dose and 23 million children received two doses of Vitamin A, constituting a massive increase from the 9.8 million reached with one round of Vitamin A supplementation in 2021.
