A Multi Indicator Cluster Survey report (MICS) has revealed that only about 23 per cent of children in Nigeria have received all recommended vaccines between 2016 and 2017. Th e survey also revealed that 40 per cent of the children in Nigeria, aged between 12 and 23 months, did not receive all routine immunisations against childhood killer diseases.
Acting Director, Planning Research and Statistics, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Abdullahi Garba, disclosed this recently at the National Dissemination meeting of the 2017 National Immunisation Coverage Survey (NICS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) in Abuja. Garba said the survey, which was conducted across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), showed that only 23 per cent of children were fully vaccinated, 37 per cent partially vaccinated, while 40 per cent were not vaccinated. He added that routine immunisation coverage was high in the South-west with 50 per cent of children fully vaccinated against polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, and measles, among others. Garba further said 39 per cent of children in the South-west were partially vaccinated and 11 per cent not vaccinated.
He said: “Th e survey shows that North-west had the poorest coverage with eight per cent of the children fully vaccinated, 31 per cent partially vaccinated and 61 per cent not vaccinated. “Immunisation performance is weakest in the North-east and North-west zones. Th e survey gave some of the reasons why children were not fully vaccinated as lack of awareness, mistrust and the lack of faith on immunisation by mothers and caregivers.” Also speaking, the Nigeria Country Offi cer, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Yusuf Yusufari, called on the federal government to take over the responsibility of immunisation in the country. He said: “Th e government, health workers and partners must be held accountable for routine immunisation. “By accountability, I mean the Nigeria government has procured 100 per cent of vaccines required to vaccinate our children, but the result is telling us only a few have been vaccinated, what is happening to other vaccines? “Th is means that there is a lot of ineffi ciency in the system or a lot of inaccurate reporting, so we all need to be accountable.”
