By Muhammad Amaan
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), says it has targeted 3.8 million children for immunisation against measles in four states.
Patrick Akor, UNICEF’s Health Officer, Bauchi Field Office, stated this at a news conference on Friday in Bauchi.
He said the seven-day integrated measles campaign would begin on Saturday simultaneously in Plateau, Bauchi, Gombe and Adamawa.
“For the measles campaign, we have a target of 3.8million children from nine months to 59 months across the four states.
“We have received over four million doses of measles vaccines which have been supplied across the four states,” he said.
According to Akor, UNICEF will conduc Oral Polio Vaccination (OPV) campaign, targeting about 6.8 million children across five states in northern Nigeria.
The exercise, he said, targeted children from zero to 59 months across Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi, Gombe and Adamawa.
“The total number of vaccines that have already gotten to them is 7.4 million doses across these five states.
“We are looking at it that no child should be left behind, all children of an eligible age group should be reached and be vaccinated”.
He, therefore, urged the media to help in disseminating the message to the public, especially at the grassroots.
Also, Mr George Eki, Social Behavioural Change Specialist, UNICEF, said the UN agency was supporting the Government of Nigeria, to protect children against measles and other vaccine preventable diseases.
He said the organisation was working in collaboration with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NOHCDA), state agencies and partners, to ensure effective coverage of the different aspects of the campaign.
“There is logistic support we provide to the state. We made vaccines available across the states for the campaign, there are also commodities that are also made available through the support of UNICEF.
“The cold chain system that supports cooling and storage of vaccines has also been provided by UNICEF.
“More importantly, the advocacy, communication and social mobilisation is solely the UNICEF mandate in this exercise where we are providing support to all the states to ensure that people get to know when this campaign is going to happen.
“Through this, people also get to know the age bracket of children that are eligible for this vaccination as well as where to go or how to receive this vaccine,” he said.
