By Khadija Aliyu
The Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN) and Africa Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) have called for the strengthening of existing multi-sectoral coordination platforms to end Zero-Dose case among children in Nigeria.
Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the AFENET, Mr Adam Attahiru, who made the call, added that boosting Antenatal Care (ANC) attendance, and improving institutional delivery services are some of the major catalysts to achieving immunization success.
Health Reporters Newspaper reports that these was part of key recommendations made during the during a three-day Zero Dose Learning Hub (ZDLH) Peer Learning and Exchange Retreat held in Abuja.
Mr. Attahiru emphasized that targeted interventions aimed at engaging heads of households to give consent for childhood vaccination, improving the quality of care to build trust in healthcare workers, and scaling the ZDLH to other zero-dose Local Government Areas (LGAs) would yield significant positive results.
“Implement targeted optimized outreach within a 2KM radius from health facilities during mop-ups in identified high-risk wards, and harmonize ACSM activities to boost vaccine confidence,” he recommended.
The M&E officer highlighted some persistent challenges affecting immunization monitoring in Kano, Bauchi, Borno, and Sokoto states, including:
“Inability to track the vaccination of referred, identified zero-dose children. Inconsistencies in master lists of settlements provided for immunization activities.”
Also speaking at the retreat, the Founder of Sustainable Innovation and Development Solutions (SIDES), Dr Sufi Musa Abdullahi, stated that reaching zero-dose children goes beyond just delivering vaccines; it requires strategic communication and advocacy.
He called for efforts to engage, inform, and inspire youths, caregivers, communities, and leaders to support immunization activities.
In a paper titled “Enhancing Writing and Communication Skills for Our News Stories,” Editor of Health Reporters, Haruna Gimba Yaya, emphasised on the importance of accuracy, clarity, objectivity, timeliness, and relevance in health news reporting.
He encouraged writers to AHBN platform to adopt the pyramid style of news writing, supported by quotes to ensure that information are succinctly pass to in order to achieve zero dose.
The ZDLH Peer Learning and Exchange Retreat organized by the AHBN and AFENET was funded by GAVI, The Vaccine Initiative and has participants from the four ZDLH states of Bauchi, Borno, Kano and Sokoto.
