The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) says about 93 per cent of children affected by current diphtheria outbreaks in Nigeria had not obtained the total beneficial vaccine doses.
The company’s Executive Director, Muyi Aina, disclosed this on Thursday throughout its quarterly media briefing in Abuja.
Mr Aina stated an evaluation of instances recorded throughout the outbreaks confirmed that almost all affected children had been both unvaccinated or had obtained fewer than the three beneficial doses.
“We looked at data from all the cases that we have had, and in the different outbreaks that are happening, over 90 per cent, I think 93 per cent of the children had not received the full complement of vaccines that they should receive,” he stated.
He stated some affected children had both obtained no vaccine or just one of the three beneficial doses.
Mr Aina attributed the scenario partly to misinformation and false rumours affecting vaccine uptake in some communities.
“The vaccines are available. We have advocated, and we have interventions to get communities to access these vaccines,” he stated.
“But when people allow misinformation and false rumours to influence their behaviour, they don’t access the vaccines.”
Mr Aina stated decreasing vaccine-preventable illnesses remained a essential precedence of the company’s immunisation programme.
Other vaccination programmes
Mr Aina stated greater than 18.3 million women had obtained the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, and efforts are ongoing to increase protection amongst eligible women.
“For the human papillomavirus vaccine, over 18.3 million of our girls have now been vaccinated,” he stated.
He added that the measles-rubella vaccine had reached greater than 102 million children aged 9 months to 14 years.
According to him, 882,000 children in Kebbi, Bayelsa, Ondo and Bauchi states had obtained not less than the primary dose of the malaria vaccine.
Mr Aina stated the company was additionally recording gradual enchancment in routine immunisation protection and decreasing the quantity of zero-dose children by way of focused interventions.
READ ALSO: NPHCDA records 45 million quarterly PHC visits, links 773,000 pregnant women to care
“We are reducing our number of zero-dose children through several interventions, including the identification, enumeration and vaccination of children, and through targeted interventions to reach underserved communities,” he stated.
He urged caregivers, group leaders and academics to assist vaccination efforts to guard children in opposition to preventable illnesses.
“I think this should be a wake-up call for all of us who are caregivers, for those of us that are community leaders and teachers, that we need to again focus on making sure that we get all of the vaccines that we need,” Mr Aina stated.
He added that efforts are underway to increase the Basic Health Care Provision Fund to extra services, growing protection from 8,300 to fifteen,000.
(NAN)
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