The authorities must do more to ensure that all children are immunised and protected
A recent warning by the United States Centre for Disease Control (USCDC) that Nigeria risks an outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases should be taken seriously. According to the centre which has advocated urgent action to close the wide immunisation gap, Nigeria accounts for the highest-burden of unsaturated children globally, with 2.3 million zero-dose children. These are children who are yet to receive the first dose of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine. The USCDC report corroborates ‘The State of the World’s Children 2023,’ by the United Nations Children’s Funds (UNICEF) which revealed that 2.2 million children in Nigeria have never received a vaccination. Perhaps more disturbing is that on the number of children at the risk of death and vaccine-preventable diseases, Nigeria is second only to India.
Largely responsible for interrupted…
Source: Thisday Newspaper
