By Gom Mirian
Over 600,000 children in the three states of Kano, Katsina, and Jigawa in the Northwest region, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), have not been vaccinated against childhood killer diseases.
Mr. Rahama Rihood Farah, Chief of the UNICEF Field Office in Kano, who disclosed this on Wednesday at a Media Dialogue on Routine Immunization and Zero Dose Campaign in Kano state, said this figure accounts for almost 40 per cent of the total unvaccinated children across the country.
According to Mr. Farah, Kano State alone bears the burden of over 300,000 unvaccinated children, representing 50 per cent of the three states under the UNICEF Kano Office. Such a halt in vaccination efforts can contribute to a resurgence of diseases such as polio, measles, diphtheria, and meningitis.
He said: “This situation is unacceptable and should be reversed urgently. As the UN agency mandated for the protection and promotion of children’s rights, we are extremely concerned, when children don’t get immunized, when children have no access to immunization services their basic fundamental right is not fulfilled.
“I, therefore, take this opportunity and urge traditional and religious leaders, community leaders, and civil society organizations, to forge partnerships to eliminate the number of unimmunized children in Nigeria.
“I also call on the governments of Kano, Jigawa, and Katsina states and other states with zero-dose LGAS, to take concerted action to strengthen their Primary Healthcare System including: To implement the Nigeria Primary Health Care Under One Roof Policy to ensure one-stop functional primary healthcare center per ward particularly those LGAs with unimmunized children.
“To ensure an integrated package of primary health services are provided to families in one functional health facility Increase strategic interventions to address the persistent gap in human resources and recruit additional skilled critical cadres of health workers, including vaccinators, Community Health Influencers and Promoters Services (CHIPS) agents for immunization demand creation Provide essential medicines and health commodities, infrastructure, electricity, and water supply for quality integrated Primary Health Care service for people.”
