By Muhammad Amaan
As the world celebrates International Women’s Day, the Kano State Community of Practice (CoP) has called on mothers and caregivers to prioritise immunisation for their children.
The Kano State Community of Practice (CoP) on immunisation budget tracking and accountability, a coalition of CSOs and government officials championing the course of children health, under the AFENET/AHBN Zero-Dose Learning Hub project
This call to action is part of the global theme “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.”
According to CoP, Kano State faces significant challenges in immunisation coverage, with only 35.8% of children receiving basic antigens.
“This has resulted to high number of zero-dose and under immunised children. The state has fifteen 15 LGAs out of the 100 LGAs that has the highest burden of zero-dose children in Nigeria”
CoP highlighted that, “this high number of zero dose has been associated with recurrent outbreak of preventable childhood killer diseases such as the diphtheria outbreak of 2023, that claimed many lives and consumed huge resources that could have been use for other developmental activities.”
According to studies conducted in the state on barriers to accessing immunisation by partners such as AFENET, McKinsey, dRPC, Save the Children among others, demand side barriers such as ignorant, religious beliefs, perceived adverse effects, financial constraints and poor health seeking behaviours where the major factors contributing to low immunisation services utilisation.
“This has resulted in a high number of zero-dose and under-immunised children, making the state vulnerable to outbreaks of preventable childhood killer diseases”
The community identified Key Factors Contributing to Low Immunisation Rates including, ignorance, religious beliefs, perceived adverse effects, financial constraints, and poor health-seeking behaviours.
“Inadequate Budgetary Allocations and Releases: Insufficient funding for immunisation activities.”
To address these challenges, the Kano State CoP is working to Promote Awareness by Educating mothers and caregivers on the importance of immunisation.
Improve Access through increased access to immunisation services, particularly in rural and hard-to-reach areas.
The community noted that, enhancing Budgetary Allocations by Advocate for increased funding for immunisation activities.
“By working together, we can increase immunisation rates and protect the children of Kano State from preventable childhood killer diseases.”
