About 2.2 million Nigerian children do not receive a single dose of any vaccine every year, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said.
It said this made Nigeria the country with the second highest number of zero-dose children in the world.
Eduardo Celades, Chief of Health, UNICEF Nigeria, said this in Nigeria on Thursday at a media briefing on the release of the State of the World’s Children global report.
He said, “In the first eight weeks of delivery, 2.2 million children every year are not vaccinated at all in Nigeria.”
He noted that vaccines are a very powerful tool in preventing childhood diseases and reducing child mortality, saving the lives of more than 4.4 million children every year.
He said UNICEF, in collaboration with the federal government and other actors, was working towards addressing zero-dose children in Nigeria.
He said 100 priority local government areas and 1,200 wards with zero-dose children had been identified and that they aimed to catch up with one million missed children in the next 700 days.
Rajat Madhok, UNICEF Nigeria’s Chief of Communications, said the global report revealed that 67 million children missed out on getting vaccinated, with vaccination coverage levels decreasing in 112 countries.
He said 12.7 million children in Africa missed out on getting vaccinations in the last three years.
