By Edoamaowo Udeme
The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA) says Nigeria will reach 85% immunisation coverage in the next by 2018 and to achieve this, 2.7bn Dollars is required.
Speaking at the event to mark the commencement of the African Vaccination Week, (AVW), in Abuja, The Executive Director of NPHDA, Faisal Shauib, said the event is to create more awareness on the importance of immunisation and to appeal to the Federal Government to provide funding for the procurement of vaccines.
“The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) report on immunization in Nigeria shows that we are lagging behind as we still have outbreaks of disease due to inadequate immunization so we need the continuous support of donor agencies and stakeholders in order to achieve this feat”
“As a country, we need to prepare in the next 10 years to be on our own so we are currently creating a roadmap that will take us to that destination” Shuaib noted
“People used to say prevention is better than cure but we have had a very clear prove that prevention is cheaper than the cure”
On efforts made to reach children in “Hard to reach areas” Shuaib said the agency now has a mobile vaccination section that is looking into that.
“All plans to identify those “Hard to Reach” areas and vaccinate children have been put in place”
“Considering how large Nigeria is, If we attempt to address every single community within one year, we will spread the intervention very thin and that means, we will do a shoddy job so we are operating on phases”.
“There are 18 worst performing states and that is our target for now, we will deal with those ones first and then use lessons learnt to reach out to the ones that follows them, that however does not mean that we would not do something for other states, we will continue to motivate them”.
“We have to device mechanism to reach them, Bayelsa is one of the poor performing states and because of the riverine terrain, we will use engine boats provided by NPHCDA to reach the children there”. said Shuaib.
Also at the event, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu, who spoke using this years AVW theme “Vaccines work, do your part” said “The theme is the most ideal as it calls for greater action on immunization across the African Region, emphasizing the need for everyone to play a part to ensure children are protected from vaccine preventable disease”.
While Nigeria’s theme, “Vaccines work, Be an immunisation champion” provides a similar emphasis by calling on government, private sector, donors to do more to get more children vaccinated against vaccine preventable diseases.
“As the leading government agency on immunisation, NPHCDA has risen to the challenges of addressing low routine immunisation coverage”. Said Alemu
“The declaration of a state of emergency on routine immunisation has given us confidence that the government is ready to implement “business unusual” strategies, approaches and interventions to reach the huge number of unvaccinated children in order to attain the national target of 85% coverage by 2028″. He noted
“WHO and partners are encouraged by these positive developments and are ever ready to support the Government of Nigeria through the NPHCDA to improve the health of Nigeria’s children”. He stressed
Alemu added that “The 2018 AVW is also being marked in the context of reforms in the immunization programme to address the low immunization coverage that was revealed by the last national immunization coverage survey”.
He thanked NPHCDA for rising to the challenge of addressing low routine immunization coverage
“The declaration of a state of emergency on routine immunisation has given us all the confidence that the government is ready to implement “Business unusual” strategies, approaches and interventions to reach the huge number of unvaccinated children in order to attain the nationalntarget of 85% coverage by 2028″.
Alemu calls for increased domestic resources for the programme “it is well known that more domestic investment needs to be made in immunization and primary health care in general to meet the targets”.
“As we commemorate the eight AVM, I call on governments, parliamentarians and policy-makers, Civil Society Organizations, the private sector, communities and all families to break down the barriers to immunization and ensure all Nigerian children get the shot to life that they deserve”.
The AVW is to strengthen immunization programmes in the African Region by raising awareness on the need and right of every person to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases”
” It aims to keep immunization high on national and regional agendas through advocacy and partnerships and also promotes delivery of other high-impact lifesaving interventions”
