ROYAL FATHERS AND IMMUNISATION

All stakeholders should do more to improve the coverage level of childhood immunisation

It is heartwarming that Northern traditional rulers have joined the efforts for stronger community engagement and improved immunisation coverage on the circulating variants of the poliovirus in parts of the region. At the quarterly review meeting of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee (NTLC) on Primary Health Care (PHC) delivery held in Abuja. Organised by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in collaboration with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the meeting brought together critical stakeholders in the sector to review progress on routine immunisation, maternal healthcare, and community health interventions. “No nation can prosper when mothers and children continue to die from preventable causes,” said the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate.

 The United States Centre for Disease Control (USCDC) once warned that Nigeria risks an outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases. According to the centre which 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. 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. 

 Immunisation as a measure used to track progress towards lowering child morbidity and mortality is one of the most cost-effective public health initiatives. It is thus essential that the health authorities in Nigeria must do more to ensure that all children are immunised and protected. Government at all levels as well as other critical stakeholders must act now to ‘catch up’ with those missed vaccinations to prevent more deadly disease outbreaks. More importantly, there is an urgent need to intensify education and awareness of the deadly consequences of avoiding childhood vaccinations. Prevention, which is the whole idea of vaccination, as the old saying goes, is better than cure. 

  As a result of the security challenge that plagues the nation, routine immunisation, and the inability to access certain areas remains a major problem. But we encourage all critical stakeholders to rise to the challenge so that we can quickly deal with this problem. Health officials in all parts of Nigeria, whether north or south, need to redouble their efforts to improve the coverage level of childhood immunisation and other child survival issues that plague the Nigerian child. Given the successful earlier efforts to fight Polio, there is nothing to suggest we cannot overcome this challenge, especially if we mobilise the civil society, religious and traditional leaders as well as our dedicated health workers at local levels. 

Largely responsible for interrupted childhood vaccination across the world was the Covid-19 pandemic. According to UNICEF, the intense demands on health systems, the diversions of immunisation resources, health worker shortages and stay-at-home measures all contributed to missed vaccinations. These are in addition to conflicts, climate change and vaccine hesitancy. But the challenge was more because public perception of the importance of vaccines declined and further exacerbated the persistent weaknesses in health systems and primary healthcare. 

Before the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption, Nigeria was making progress, albeit slowly, in childhood immunisation. Data from the Nigerian Democratic and Health Survey (NDHS) revealed that the percentage of children that received all basic vaccinations increased from 13 per cent in 2003 to 31 per cent in 2018. But Nigeria still has a lot to do to meet the Sustainable Development Goals’ target of achieving more than 90 per cent coverage of all basic vaccinations among children aged 12-23 months. Besides, the country’s childhood vaccination coverage also falls short of Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) targets, making many children vulnerable to death and vaccine-preventable diseases.  We therefore commend northern traditional leaders for their intervention on the challenge.